Intermissions
by kawaiisuzu
Summary: Naturally, Kushina decides to ward Namikaze off with an assortment of pointy objects. [A love story told in bits and pieces.]
1. Mission 01

_Disclaimer: I own none of Kishimoto's characters. None._

* * *

_**Intermission **  
_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Fairytales _suck_.

When Kushina finishes flipping through the last page of the cheesy romance she found under the stairs (likely left by the last tenant of the apartment), she throws the book in the corner of her room. It's going to accumulate with the old homework assignments and fester with the empty ramen cups.

She can summarize twenty three tales, neatly, in three sentences. The prince saves the princess. He tells her how beautiful she is, how (gag) _overcome_ with love he has become. Then, they get married and produce offspring that (if they were girls) get locked up in towers and other fun predicaments or (if they were boys) rescue their own share of damsels just like Pop.

How quaint. How formulaic.

Kushina won't tell anyone in the village, not even some of the people in her nin class she feels are worth her time, but _sometimes_, late at night, she curls into a ball facing the wall-side of her bed and relives her own "fairytale" encounter.

And she wonders.

It's a disease, Kushina's sure, and at this point in time she knows it's not going away soon.

Namikaze, Minato.

The object of her thoughts, plagues her nightly with his renditions of love echoing in her head. Sometimes, his passionate pleas end with him calling her "Briar Rose" or "Princess Odette" and other crap like that. So then she has to re-imagine it with more of reality mixed in. Something like a continuation of that starry night, with him rescuing her from the kidnapper nin and carrying her to the treetops. In her head, he is telling her what a splendid ninja she was and how he wished he were half as brave and awesome as she, etc, etc. And hey, on occasion, she agrees to go grab some ramen with him.

And then she wakes up in the morning (or late afternoon), realizing she had dozed off after all. Kushina always feels slightly relieved that the dreams never end with her and Namikaze kissing or pulling other weird stunts on each other.

She knows all too well what happens kunoichi who decide that romance is better than training for chunnin exams or inventing cool new jutsu. Last summer, Yamanaka Aiko met a chunnin from another hidden village. They decided to get married in the Hidden Leaf, with him taking her name, and Aiko-san suddenly became "Aiko-chan" to everyone around her. She renounced her kunoichi way of life and became a (fairly aggressive) housewife. To top off horror with travesty, Yamanaka Aiko, now six months pregnant, probably cannot jump over a taller tree branch to save her life.

Kushina's not stupid. Vulnerabilities are a part of life, and that's that. Everyone has weaknesses, and everyone develops new weaknesses. Just because she fancies Namikaze now doesn't mean her life as a ninja and future-hokage is _over_.

But she also knows, plain and simple, that if fancying Namikaze turns into something else—kami-sama forbid, a _relationship_—there is absolutely no escaping the fairytale syndrome. She would get shackled with the baggage for the rest of her life. Kiss her awesome dreams of enemy-butt-kicking and peerless accomplishment goodbye.

That. is. not. happening. Not on her watch.

And so Kushina develops a plan, a special mission (SS-rank, which stands for Save yourSelf) between normal missions, to be carried out in utmost secrecy.

* * *

She's been tailing him for a whole week now.

Jiraiya-sensei actually _giggles_ (far more loudly than any grown man should be allowed to, Minato decides) whenever she draws near to their training site. Minato notices the splash of red out of his peripheral vision every time, but chooses to wisely ignore it, lest his sensei turn around and lose focus for the rest of the afternoon. He finishes setting up his fifth exploding tag seal before both the second and third he set up a few yards ago explode with loud, resounding cracks.

He sighs inwardly, before jogging over to the location of his practice seals.

Uzumaki is fine. The edges of her red hair look a bit burnt, Minato notices with dismay. But the important part is that she has enough energy to jump back, all surprise and big, gray eyes, when he approaches.

Minato decides to speak first.

"Uzumaki-san, what brings you here?" He thinks his voice is pleasant enough, light-hearted and not-I'm-slightly-disconcerted-because-you've-been-acting-kind-of-strange, but his question only makes Uzumaki Kushina's eyes widen all the more. Minato's puzzlement grows at the look of horror that seems permanently etched onto Kushina's expressive face these days.

Minato tries to ignore the snickers behind him. Jiraiya is too far away to hit with his fist or leg, and it is unnecessary to waste a shuriken on him.

"_Read it_," Kushina snarls more than speaks this request.

Suddenly, a letter is shoved into his hands and Minato watches as a red blur disappears the other way, now far away from the training grounds.

He turns the rough edges around in his hands, eager with curiosity and something else. The boy regains his composure, though, with his sensei watching.

Uzumaki's letter reads "Challenge" in bold black strokes.

Minato notes that she's slightly misspelled the kanji, and he feels his lips tug upwards at the characteristic error.


	2. Mission 02

**Suzu: Thank you for reading my first foray into Naruto-verse! **

**As the description suggests, this story is told in short chapters. All the "bits and pieces" are linked in timeline, so there will eventually be a grand finale. Speaking of the timeline, this piece starts about a few weeks after Minato rescues Kushina and she realizes he's not so sissy-pants after all (aka the most epic moment in this fandom). While I picture a more headstrong and straightforward Kushina generally, she really is undergoing a transition after that event, which I hope to capture. In case you haven't noticed, her poor paranoid brain has decided Minato's comments about her hair etc mean that he's already in love. With her. And Kushina has to stop him, being who she is.  
**

**Readers and Reviewers are always love.**

* * *

**_Intermission 2  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Kushina can't keep still in the three days before their appointed duel. She knows Namikaze Minato is the village prodigy the same way she knows she hasn't really been at her A-game lately. If this trend continued, she'd lose and he would never consider her a rival instead of a potential love interest. And then, her days of saving ass and kicking-butt would be over.

No. Her plan _had_ to succeed. She doesn't _want_ to be a damsel.

When she'd delivered her letter of challenge to him, his face had been so radiant and honest. Namikaze had looked at her with _those clear blue eyes_. His teeth practically glowed; they were so white. Kushina is sure this is her _slow descent into madness_, and she is sure the look in his eyes meant that he, too, _had it bad_—perhaps worse than she did.

She figures that he is kinda sorta definitely falling in love with her, especially all that nonsense about noticing her hair and thinking it's actually pretty. Her chain of thought becomes positively saccharine before Kushina mentally slaps herself.

In order to prevent him from realizing his feelings for her, and have him stop trying to heroically save her in any more situations of life and death where she _most certainly did NOT _need saving, Kushina decides to carry out Plan SS. Mission: to transform his feelings of love into feelings of rivalry and comradeship.

She would not be made into the fairytale princess. She would be his rival instead.

They would spar, they would throw shuriken and chakra blasts at each other, and after they had worked up a sweat, she would get to _enjoy the view_ (ugh, scratch that last part).

* * *

They keep the fight private.

Minato has a feeling that he shouldn't tell anyone about his appointed sparring match with Uzumaki Kushina (Jiraiya would guffaw, his teammates would ask questions), so he keeps quiet for three days before he heads off to the edge of the woods to meet Uzumaki.

She's wearing her short sword at her side, and her red hair is pulled up into a high ponytail. The hairstyle is not something Minato has seen on her before, but he mentally notes that she looks nice (he likes the way a few crimson strands fall onto the milky expanse of her newly exposed nape) before Uzumaki attacks with a fierce shout. He stops admiring her blatant fighting spirit to dodge before she gives him a hell of a concussion.

They don't talk or taunt, only exchange punches and kicks at high speeds. There's an unspoken agreement to start slow. Neither shows off a special move or some fancy chakra blast. It's just their bodies, engaged in an intricate choreography of blows as they come to together, leap apart, then come together again.

Somehow, Minato feels like he's having a conversation. It's one of the most intimate conversations he's ever had with a girl, he thinks, as he lands a blow to her hip. She spins away immediately, and her hair shines in the sun, impossibly red and bright, as she lands on her feet several yards away, both eyes and stance feline.

Minato is starting to breathe heavily now, probably because it's so hot outside. He knows that Kushina has a monstrous amount of chakra and physical stamina. He decides to end it quickly, to his favor, and pulls out a kunai. He laces it with his chakra and directs it to hit a spot on the ground directly behind Kushina.

She pulls out a shuriken at the same time and launches it at Minato. Somehow, Minato can almost feel his chakra tugging at his fingertips, linking his kunai knife with the rest of his body. The kunai sticks to the designated spot just behind Kushina's heel, and Minato is suddenly launching himself forward. He's never been so focused. He sees the individual beads of sweat on Kushina's forehead, and he wills himself closer to her. Faster. _Faster_.

Kushina blinks, for one instant, and then suddenly Minato is behind her. She has time enough to think "How did he—" before firm, warm hands capture her wrists and tie them behind her back.

"I win," Minato murmurs into her ear. Kushina bites her lip, hard, to keep her knees from giving way.


	3. Mission 03

**_Intermission 3  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

He's the first one to suggest a rematch.

Namikaze Minato's eyes are a bit too bright as he explains what a thrill it was to fight her the first time. Kushina's stamina is amazing, he effuses, and the honesty in his voice rings clear as a bell. That was one of the first times he's been pushed by someone his own age, he tells her. In the process, he's worked out an interesting phenomenon in chakra infused weapons. He may be on to something big here. Something to push his battles to be faster, better, so that he wouldn't lose to hardier, bigger opponents.

One rematch turns to two. A whole series of matches are scheduled, one for every Monday, before it turns to one every day.

Kushina is more than happy to comply, especially since these extra sparring matches are helping her with her own training as well. She almost always looks forward to them, except on days when Jiraiya is finishing up on training Minato and his genin teammates in the late afternoon, and the old pervert would leer at her before she "humphed" and dragged Minato with her as soon as it was their appointed time.

* * *

One time he asks her why she chose him as the recipient of her letter of challenge.

They've just finished a particularly long, four-hour sparring session. Both are lying on the grass, watching the clouds drift by and nursing their sore muscles.

Kushina replies as if it's the most obvious thing in the world:

"Because we're rivals. Because you want to be hokage, but I called it first."

After a pause, she adds:

"And because you're strong and, um, pretty reliable."

It takes Minato a while to process that this is the first time she's praised him aloud, to his face.

* * *

**Suzu: Workin' to keep up the crazy update schedule. Won't you leave a comment?  
**


	4. Mission 04

**_Intermission 4_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Kushina is actually quite good at making seals, Minato finds out. Prodigious, even. Her control of basic chakra manipulation leaves a whole country-sized space for improvement, but as far drawing and executing seals go, the young kunoichi can best Minato (and maybe even her own sensei) at performing a range of complicated procedures.

He is pleased to find out that she makes an amazing conversation partner, once she sizes you up and determines you're not a sissy, a flake, or hopelessly _too average_ for her taste. They often end up discussing techniques after sparring, and Kushina's attitude improves markedly after a loss once Minato engages her in a discussion about cool new jutsu he's been working on.

When they get to the topic of chakra flow, Kushina's eyes gleam and she talks animatedly about seals and chakra combinations that Minato is pretty sure even Hyuga Hizashi would have little clue about. He's impressed, and digs deeper into her core of knowledge, as eager to listen and learn as Kushina is to share.

When they get to the topic of fuinjutsu, one day, Kushina clams up without warning, and Minato watches as her brows knit together.

Being the patient boy he is, Minato wisely steps off the subject until she's ready.

* * *

Kushina's dreams (ahem, nightmares) don't end.

Instead, they get more intense, and some turn into _sagas_, with nightly sequels.

Dream-Minato always calls her by her name now, and often calls her by her first name "Kushina", instead of the respectful "Uzumaki-san".

He still tells her she's strong and brave and he loves her for it, etc, etc.

Real-Kushina wants to break down and scream that she's _not_, not anymore.

She's become a stupid, lovestruck girl, and she doesn't want them to get any closer than this because they're _rivals_, damnit, and she had thought her plan would work.

* * *

It scares the crap out of Kushina when Minato invites her to go eat ramen after their sparring session.

It's been exactly four months since they started this whole thing, and she's been battling inner "demons" almost nightly. On particularly bad nights, she wakes up, face flushed, and vows to hit Minato _particularly_ hard that coming day, to demonstrate that _she still can_, thank you very much.

But she has never refused ramen before, and she sees no reason to refuse a good friend and rival (that's all he is, that's all he is). Even if her heart thumps in her ears all the way to Ichiraku's new ramen stand, she imagines that the taste of warm noodle broth is enough to wash away any intentions of romance Minato might have toward her as well.

She's fairly sure that her plan to distract him from fulfilling his Prince Charming act has worked. She knows Minato sees her as a sort of rival now, if you counted the numerous sparring matches, the late night talks about their futures as shinobi.

All is going well, and Kushina has finished her second bowl, asking for a third, when she realizes with a jolt that she didn't bring any money with her.

Minato is calm and smiles gently at her (the one that makes Kushina want to punch both him and herself for going jelly-kneed) before offering to pay for both of them.

Oh no. _Ohnoohnoohno._

Kushina smacks the table, hard, before announcing that after their sparring match tomorrow, they would go for ramen again and she would sure as hell pay him back, 'ttebane.

Secretly, she's pleased at this development. Salt ramen and Minato are two of her favorite things, though she'd rather knock out her own front teeth than admit the latter.


	5. Mission 05

**Warning: surgeon general advices brushing teeth after reading last bit. Also, note time leaps._  
_**

* * *

**_Intermission 5_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

After a year, people begin registering them as an _item_.

No one knows exactly what sort of item, but there's an uncanny relationship between the two chunnin and no other shinobi in the village wants to risk getting in the middle of that, thanks. If they asked, Kushina would probably claw at them and scream in their ears and Minato, oh man, would smile his normal smile but with an extra 30% creepiness factor that seemed to say "stay out of it".

A sizeable group of the girls in the village make it their routine gossip. Kushina's not exactly popular with her female age group, and so the other girls titter about the embarrassing way she's come on to Namikaze-kun. "Isn't it desperate?" "Can't you just see how she's pining over him?" "Kunoichi are supposed to be secretive and graceful, not loud and sweaty!"

A small group of male shinobi defend the screwball relationship. Namikaze seems pretty into her, they say. Plus, she's a lot prettier now, if you don't mind the intermittent rage and ramen addiction. And sometimes, some of the older jounin see Namikaze Minato glancing at Uzumaki Kushina as they walk down the street. _It's there_, they conclude.

_Something's _there. It's too early to know exactly what.

* * *

Kushina wants to tell him that she's different from all those girls. She needs him to understand that she doesn't want to be his girlfriend, nor his wife, nor his crazed fangirl. Sure, she has a teensy bit of a crush on him, but that's really, really not important. She's going to be hokage one day, or at the very least a legendary kunoichi the likes of which Konoha has never seen. So Minato should just leave her alone and leave this alone and _stop looking at her like that_.

Instead, all she gets out is: "Stop looking at me."

Minato just chuckles lightly and asks her what in the world she's talking about. Kushina can tell he's genuinely amused at her, and she contains her urge to get up, shout at him for being _insensitive_, and then storm out, because they're in public and it could be taken the wrong way.

They're both sitting on the bench of a popular dango shop. It's been nearly half a year after they first started going to Ichiraku's after sparring practice, Minato is a genius and thus has finally convinced Kushina there's more to food than just ramen. So they've switched it up a bit with the establishments they would frequent together either before or after a good workout.

Minato then asks her what she wants to do for her birthday, because it's coming up and he knows she doesn't have family in the village to celebrate it with her.

Kushina looks up from her food, surprised. "How'd you know it was this weekend?"

Minato shrugs, says that he notices these things. Kushina has to cut him off before he starts on a speech much like the one about noticing her hair two years ago.

"Well, you have a date with Hashikuji Emi on Saturday, right?" she says loudly. "You don't have time this weekend."

"Emi-san just needs extra practice with genjutsu. It's not like she can't practice on another shinobi, instead" Minato reasons.

_Yeah, but I betcha she'd like to throw a genjutsu on you more than on anyone else._ Kushina wisely stops herself from speaking out loud and decides to brush off the subject instead.

"Look, I can hang out with Mikoto. You do your thing."

She tries to ignore the deflating feeling in her chest, and Minato looks at her worriedly for a second.

She gets up and leaves, but not before she yells at him that he better not forget their sparring match on Friday, or she'll pummel him, regardless of whether he's seeing Hashikuji Saturday or not.

* * *

There's a lull in their blows, so he takes the opportunity to ask.

"Hey, Uzumaki-san, can I call you by your first name?"

She's long since stopped referring to Namikaze Minato as Namikaze in her head, and has taken to calling him "Yo" or "Hey you" when she has to in public.

"I-I guess."

It had been two years since they'd started hanging out regularly, after all. Some things could change. _And some things never change_, she thought guiltily, recalling her dream last weekend.

Minato's smile is contagious, and he looks at her earnestly before he tests her first name.

"Kushina-chan."

"Ugh." She makes a face, which makes Minato laugh.

"Kushina-kun? That doesn't sound right. You're a girl, after all."

"... Kushina is fine."

Minato looks thoughtful, and tests the name a few times.

"You don't have to say it aloud now…" she mumbles, pretending to be extremely interested in the splinters hanging off the training post.

Minato laughs at her flushed face.

"It's the first time I've said it aloud," he tells her. "But I've actually thought of you as Kushina for a long time now."

There he goes again. Spewing nonsense that's bad for her heart.

After she's calmed down sufficiently, Kushina retaliates by calling him "Minato". He doesn't turn red at all, merely grins so wide she immediately decides to kick him sharply in the shin. They resume their sparring match.


	6. Mission 06

**Suzu: ****As you've noticed, the time is passing by quicker now. They're older, so the story will touch upon more, ahem, interesting topics in the future.**_  
_

* * *

**_Intermission 6  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Kushina likes Minato the best when he's serious and his blue eyes are flashing, dangerous, on the battlefield.

Other girls may like him because of his good looks and pleasant demeanor. He's smart, reliable, and people have started noticing his ingenuity when it comes to new techniques, especially those mixing standard ninja tools with complex seals. Minato never brags, doesn't get puffed up, and executes his missions with caution and precision.

But Kushina doesn't want his nice smiles and his pretty corn-silk hair, on a balmy afternoon when both of them are sitting in the grass on the hillside and she's pretty sure that Jiraiya knows that his student is off playing hooky with her. She wants peace, but she knows from experience that it comes with a price-soldiers, strong, resilient, willing to take the hit.

She likes Minato better on the battlefield.

There, his senses are heightened and he looks ready to explode with carefully repressed power. She loves _that moment_ before he turns into a streaking yellow flash that leaves only an afterimage burned on the back of everyone's eyelids.

In those moments, she knows Minato belongs there. He's a ninja, through and through, despite what anyone else says, and she wouldn't be surprised if he became the youngest hokage in history.

And she wants to belong there with him, fighting alongside, not being carried in his arms like some rag doll.

Goosebumps crawl up her arms in moments on the battlefield, when Minato is standing in front of her, his blonde hair plastered to his face and his chunnin jacket soaked through with mud and rain. His eyes are impossibly blue, molten, searing through enemy lines and through her, as he looks back at his allies and shouts orders. She wants to reach out and make sure he's real, just like she wanted to press her hand to his chest that night he carried her home through the treetops.

She doesn't just want a pretty face, a pleasant voice, a loving hand.

She needs to make sure that the man she likes won't break because of her. Something bestial is locked within her, and when she _feels_, she's afraid she'll break something along the way.

The Minato she sees on the battlefield won't break. No way.

In those moments, Kushina feels like it's almost safe to love him.

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto asks her why she's not spending the day with Minato. Kushina tries to gloss over the issue, saying that he's been really busy with his genin brats and she's been really busy—you know, practicing like mad to prepare for promotion.

"Also, I'm still a chunnin. I don't want to spar with him and lose, since he's a ranked jounin now and all."

Mikoto shakes her head knowingly. "Minato-kun knows you're strong, Kushina."

* * *

The first time Kushina meets Hatake Kakashi, she was planning to be on her best behavior because the little guy lost his father at a young age, and she knows exactly what it's like to lose family and be left to take care of oneself.

"Yo, how's training going?" she musters when she sidles up to Minato and his new ward.

Kakashi blinks at her, before saying, through the mask, "That's a lot of hair…"

His clinical observation isn't the best technique to use on the redheaded kunoichi. A nerve snaps and Kushina is ready to kick this little brat to next year but Minato steps in and calms both of them down. Kushina is unrelenting, though, so Minato tells Kakashi to go home for the day and that he'll see him tomorrow morning at team training with Rin and Obito.

His student complies, but not before muttering a "Che" and something under his breath about women and how they're all crazy and he hopes Sensei doesn't get any weaker.

* * *

Kushina is no failure. She's been sent on countless missions, and though her loud self-introduction as a ninja of the former Whirpool village confuses the hell out of most opponents, it's not long before her reputation as the crazy redhead from Konoha with limitless chakra reserves and deadly aim precedes her in battles. She's made more kills and protected more daimyos than most shinobi her age.

But sometimes it's not enough.

She digs through all the old unpacked boxes in her apartment and tries to find remnants of her past life. Some old photo of better days. Something to sustain her after she fails a mission, after she loses a teammate in the war and wonders _why, how she ended up like this._

She is a Whirlpool ninja. She is a Konoha kunoichi. She is strong; she's not going to cry, _damnit_, because there are people that she can never forget, people that will never forgive her if she lives with tears instead of smiles.

Minato comes in silently through the open door of her apartment on those days when she's just returned from an especially long mission. Kushina doesn't know how he always _knows_. He doesn't bother to knock during those times, only takes her by the shoulders and drags her to the kitchen so that he can make a cup of instant ramen for her while he sits silently by her side at her rickety dining table and drinks the shitty instant coffee in her cupboard.

Those nights, after he leaves, she dreams of Minato without fail—his face in battle, his face as he falls in the enemy lines, cold, unsmiling. She wakes up repeatedly in the middle of the night, skin cold and damp, and vows to get stronger in the morning.

* * *

The evening that Minato returns from a mission in Kusagakure, with one less genin on his team and no smile on his grim, rain-streaked face, Kushina breaks down his locked front door and barges into his apartment.

She can't cook any of the fancy produce and fish in his well-stocked fridge (she figures his landlady stocked it for him during his absence), so she does her best to wash several cups of rice and make a thin rice porridge. It's the same kind she has a vague recollection of her own mother making for her when she was sick as a child. And, in a way, she reasons that Minato is sick—heartsick.

When she coaxes him out his grimy clothes, her heart is surprisingly calm. She wipes the grime and cold sweat from his torso and gets him into a clean pullover before tucking him into his bed and smothering him with extra pillows from her own apartment.

When the rice porridge is ready, Minato's pleasant countenance has returned to normal but his eyes still look dead and dull, instead of the clear, open blue Kushina is used to.

That night, she doesn't leave. It's not that she thinks he's weak, or that she thinks he'll break from the loss. No, he's strong, stronger than anyone she knows. That's why they all depend on him so much.

She waits by his bed and clutches his hand for dear life because she knows what it feels like to wake up repeatedly in the middle of the night with the face of a loved one in your head.

* * *

**Cookies?**

**Rotten vegetables?**

******I know there's a TON of lurkers, which is kind of cute. But still, let's spread the MxK love in Naruto fanfic-verse! **


	7. Mission 07

**Suzu: War can screw a lot of stuff up, but through it all, we can still try to smile.**

* * *

**_Intermission 7  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

He tells her to smile more.

"You scowl a lot now, Kushina. It makes you look older."

She frowns at him before landing a punch to his chest, before his body disappears in a puff of smoke. A kage bunshin. Shoot.

The real Minato is behind her, and he looks at her with that infuriatingly gentle expression even though they're in the midst of one of their increasingly rare sparring matches.

They've taken to spending more time resting rather than fighting together now. The war requires enough energy, and missions are more frequent. They take what time they can recuperating from the stress.

"No way! Then I'll look just like you, a girly flake."

She slides her foot under him and prepares a kunai for when he'll jump up to dodge, but Minato evades her completely by using the Flying Thunder God kunai and landing a few feet away from her range.

She only smirks in response (she taught him some of those seals he uses, knows where he targets, knows how to counter), and gathers her enormous chakra to her fist before firing a blast of it into the ground. A thirty-meter diameter of earth explodes and Minato loses his footing as clumps of dirt and stone collapse beneath him.

"I win," she announces.

Minato dusts himself off, wincing slightly at the bruises.

"No, I win," he corrects her. "You're smiling."


	8. Mission 08

**_Intermission 8_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

The first time Kushina is asked out by a member of the opposite sex in all her seventeen and a half years, she complains about it—loudly—in Minato's presence.

They're out walking along the street, on their way to Ichiraku's, and Kushina is trying to describe how positively humiliating it was when her fellow chunnin Kumade Sato gave her an enormous bouquet of flowers in the middle of the Konoha hospital ward the other day. The whole hospital had found out by noon, and the she was sure everyone that knew her was tittering about it now.

"I mean—he just came to visit and popped out the flowers! Doesn't he have any sense of decency? I couldn't even move, escape, 'cause I'd busted my leg and all."

Minato looks thoughtful, but says nothing. Kushina had expected him to laugh at her funny rendition of Kumade's asking her out.

"Well, I guess you don't find it interesting, since you've been asked out so many times and all," she acquiesces, trying to not sound put out.

Minato walks a bit slower, to accommodate Kushina's slight limp.

"That's not true," he says, choosing his words carefully. "I'm merely admiring Kumade-san's incredible bravery."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Kushina protests indignantly, but she's glad he's participating, at least. She hasn't seen Minato in a week, since she was stuck in the hospital at the same time that he was out for a mission. She'd recently been released, and he'd just gotten back, so they were heading to Ichiraku's for a catch up meal.

Minato chuckles at his spitfire companion, ignoring all the pointed looks and catcalls from a large group of jounin who were walking by them. Apparently, rumors of Kushina's latest "conquest" had caught up with their shinobi crowd. Most of their classmates from the Academy thought that Minato and Kushina had a bit of a _thing _going on, and so advised each other against any personal entanglements that involved either the feisty redhead or the prodigy blonde, and not both.

Of course, Kumade was a refugee, like Kushina, and had no clue about the village gossip. He'd been assigned on a recent mission with Kushina, and had narrowly escaped being pinned to a tree with an exploding tag kunai. Kushina (with her screwball heroics) had apparently jumped in front of him to push her teammate to safety, and gotten her leg injured in the process.

"So, when's the date?" Minato asks carefully.

"Hopefully, never." Kushina grimaces. She speeds up to a light jog, the fastest she can go in her present state, to avoid Minato's penetrating gaze.

"I don't have time for sissy stuff," she calls over her shoulder, a bit too loudly.

Minato smiles for real this time, as he watches Kushina simultaneously order three bowls and ramen with double helpings of spring onion and turn around to yell at him to "hurry the hell up already".

As long as she has time for him, everything's still okay.

* * *

"He's a sissy. And he smiles too much," Kushina says as she tickles the newborn baby. "Makes himself look like a dope."

Yamanaka Aiko smiles knowingly, content that Kushina, whom she regarded as her own little sister, was growing up.

"And you don't like men like that?"

"Kumade Sato is…" Kushina trails off thoughtfully. "A friend."

"I thought my husband was just a friend, too. I was so determined to beat him at the chunnin exams. But then things happened, we married, and now I've given birth to three of his children!" Aiko laughs. "It makes me wonder where I went wrong."

Kushina grins. "Well, at least your children are super cute. Especially number three." She makes a rather fierce face at the laughing baby in Aiko's arms.

Aiko's baby flashes her an adorably mischievous smile. Kushina suddenly has a vision of a baby with downy blonde hair, pink chubby cheeks, and curled toes.

Kushina immediately erases that thought.

They were talking about Kumade, and Kumade's hair is black, not blonde.


	9. Mission 09

** Suzu: This is the start of a multi-parter explaining a mission of Kushina's. The story will be told in three installments.  
**

* * *

**_Intermission 9  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

The Third Hokage sends her on a three day, top-secret mission to the coastal edge of the Land of Fire to target a drug-trading port. She's the only person assigned, but the Hokage had assured her that several members of the ANBU squad (the scant few he could spare) would be following close behind, albeit half a day after she sets off.

So she packs her bag lightly with some essential equipment, and mutters about the old man finally trusting her to go off on a secret mission alone. The kyuubi inside of her makes it hard to predict her actions in extremely risky situations, but there are no field ninjas as familiar with the territory bordering ex-Uzu territory as she is. Any others would only slow her down. Besides, there were always the ANBU corps.

She manages to get to the trading port, and picks up her first disguise. Several guard shinobi at the market peer at her closely, which makes Kushina uncomfortable, even though she has performed a henge-jutsu to mask her unique hair color and has made her body a bit more curvacious. She manages to get into a conversation about fabric dyes with a clothes peddler on the street stall next to a group of ordinary soldiers to collect several pieces of data, before buying a fairly flamboyant outfit to wear to "her formal assignment".

Her formal assignment happens to be a five-two, squat and mustachioed businessman who has a thing for women a third his age. Kushina easily infiltrates the wealthy merchant's home as a traveling courtesan before things go horribly wrong.

They've been expecting her, it seems. Instead of entertaining an old pervy merchant, she finds herself in a room full of Iwa ninja. She's dressed in the dancer's costume, which, though it allows her an arsenal of a few kunai and two small daggers, is not enough to face a room full of enemy shinobi. She takes out about twenty of the ninja before breaking down two shoji walls and bolting out of the room, long hair flying out behind her.

The reinforcements from their side come and meet her at the edge of the port, and Kushina realizes there are three high-level jounin with them. Cursing Sarutobi-sama's so-far-unfulfilled promise of ANBU backup, she turns herself in. There's an infected wound at her shoulder and her ankle stings sharply when she tries to move. It would be pointless to waste more energy now, when she's this tired from the nonstop journey and from fighting.


	10. Mission 10

**_Intermission 10  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

She refuses to talk.

They drug her body and Kushina has to threaten to bite the nether regions off of several men that come see her before they increase her dosage and leave her alone to toss and turn in her small room.

Kushina is delirious for days, weeks, she doesn't know. All she knows is that she hears murmuring in her ear. It doesn't sound like the one who brings her drugged meals. Instead, this low soft voice implores her to keep going, to not give up. It's masculine and heartbreaking familiar, and she thinks she hears the speaker's voice break a few times due to carefully contained emotion.

One day, her mind is strong enough to tell her body to start fighting the effects of the drug. She's practiced drinking liquids and coughing them out afterwards before. Uzu shinobi and highly-ranked villagers trained from near-infancy to avoid frequent assassination attempts. Kushina coughs out her water onto the coarse rug in the corner of the room, and blearily watches as the rough fabric greedily absorbs the wet patch. She does this for three days, three times a day, before her body feels clean enough to muster strategic rational thought on how to escape.

The first time she tries standing, her head is still spinning, but it's not from drugs. Kushina pries herself up and finds that, miraculously, there is no shinobi guard at the opposite end of the shoji door. _So much for strategy._ She clobbers two of the ordinary guardsmen that she encounters on her way to the back door, and knocks the chef of the kitchen unconscious before quickly stealing some food and escaping through the kitchen door.

Kushina heads up to the dense woods surrounding the port village as fast as her trembling legs can take her. When she's surrounded above by foliage, she tries to take a bite of the large half-loaf of stale bread she stole from the kitchen. Though her stomach trembles with want, Kushina realizes that she can't. Those bastards had apparently laced the piece of bread with the hallucinogen. She had stolen the very piece of bread they rationed out to her. Her stomach gurgles again, painfully, as the smell of food seems to have wakened it from its dormant unused state.

The red-haired kunoichi curses softly (even cursing takes a lot of energy), but resigns herself to wolf down one of the two apples she took instead. It's painfully small and shrunken due to it being kept in storage until the middle of winter. Her stomach protests, and she eats another, the last one, before her brain can stop her.

Without equipment or rations, Kushina trudges up the slope to the cover of the densest parts of the forest. The merchant-pig would be sending men to look for her soon.


	11. Mission 11

**Suzu: This finale is inspired by a famous Christian poem. Props if you know it. **

* * *

**_Intermission 11  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

She walks without direction, without reason.

The stars overhead are mocking in their brightness. A few times, Kushina looks up to try to spot the North Star, to pinpoint her own location. But the light and color dances and swirls around her when she tries to focus. The sounds that flit through the treetops and underbrush, once so comforting to someone so attuned to nature's bounty, sound positively demonic.

She can't stop walking, can't stop moving toward Konoha, or the Iwa nin would find her. Plausibly, sleep and exhaustion would find her first, and _then_ the enemy would find her.

These woods were popular combatant ground, and the weak were often polished off by specially sent teams of mercenary nin with no thought against stealing some more equipment and food. She would have gladly fed them her stale, drugged bread loaf, but Kushina had given in to her physical needs and eaten it herself-her body needed calories, whether it came with extras or not.

She might have blacked out against her will, and then the drug-induced dreams start. She's reliving the nightmare from four years ago. Her hand is tugging at the strands of her hair, leaving them as a crimson trail. Her shoulder hurts. Her ankle hurts. Everywhere hurts, but she just needs to keep going.

Sometimes, she hears him murmuring comforting words in her ear.

_"I noticed your beautiful hair right away." _

_"Kushina."_

"Kushina!"

Suddenly, she's awake.

The trees are overhead but no longer block the whole sky. The night is dark and hazy with clouds, but she's definitely awake, because a wind is blowing and the pain is dull and then searing and very, very real.

But then she realizes that clear blue eyes are fixated on her face and her good arm is slung over recently-broad shoulders. His warm, strong body is pressed close to hers, supporting her. Minato's eyes are fiercely bright, and his normally gentle voice is rough with insistence.

"Kushina! Focus your eyes on me! That's it... Come on, you can do this. Let's go home."

You're not real, she wants to say. You're _too good_ to be real.

"I'm still dreaming," she croaks softly instead.

As if to prove a point to herself, Kushina uses what little energy she has left to crane her stiff neck to look past her shoulder, back at the path she had traveled.

There's one long trail of footprints through the mud floor of the forest leading up the outcropping of rock on which she and fake-Minato currently standing.

One trail of footsteps. Her own.

"See?" Kushina rasps. "You're too good to be real. I'm still alone."

Minato trembles slightly with unnamed emotion, understanding why she had looked back at the trail. He almost cannot bear to look at her heartrendingly gaunt, white face.

He pulls his ANBU mask over his face and explains simply,

"You are not alone. I carried you."


	12. Mission 12

**_Intermission 12_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

The Konoha hospital has a downstairs hair salon for long-term patients.

Kushina is only in the hospital for three weeks (crazy healing ability, the doctors muttered), and it's mostly just blood sampling and IV-drips, but she decides it's best to get a haircut.

Mikoto comes to visit her, with her boyfriend/fiance Fugaku in tow. It's strange to see stone-face Uchiha Fugaku dating (courting, Mikoto corrected Kushina once), but he and Mikoto are inseparable, and Kushina now thinks it's strange to see one without the other.

Kushina asks the two if it's a good idea to cut her bright red hair shorter. It's too noticeable, and makes ordinary, non-ninjutsu disguises just plain _difficult_.

Mikoto covers her mouth and smiles at Fugaku with her eyes, which Kushina finds downright weird, but hey, that's her friend.

"Someone will be sad if you do, Kushina-chan," the raven-haired kunoichi says mysteriously.

"Eh? WHO?" Kushina asks way too loudly for an injured hospital patient, causing Fugaku's jaw to twitch like always at Kushina's outbursts. "Aw, Ol' Fugu-chan doesn't like long hair, does he? You should have told me, Fugu-chan!"

* * *

Mikoto wasn't referring to Fugaku, of course.

Everyone in the hospital (and, at a rapid pace, those outside) knew already.

Minato was scheduled to leave on an urgent mission in the morning right after he carried an unconscious Kushina to the front steps of the Konoha hospital and demanded that she be treated. It was three am when they had arrived, and most of the hospital staff were taking a break or sleeping.

The surgical doctors recall that he looked bedraggled, almost feverish, as he ran through the hospital with the limp form of Uzumaki Kushina clutched to chest, shouting for a doctor.

The nurses sigh dreamily that it was_ so_ romantic, the way he wouldn't leave until that Uzumaki girl was tucked into the inpatient bed after being admitted to the emergency ward. Some of them gossiped that they'd seen Namikaze press a kiss to her forehead before rushing off at 5 am to the Hokage Tower for his mission.

Of course, the forehead kiss story gets exaggerated among the hospital staff to the point that it became a peck on the cheek, a chaste kiss on the lips, and some say a full-blown make out session before the two had separated, panting, from each other and bid tearful farewells as Namikaze Minato left on his month long mission.

To this day, Minato doesn't understand the strange starry-eyed looks he gets whenever he visits Konoha Hospital.

* * *

Minato invites Kushina over for food (nourishment, he says) after that ordeal. One visit turns to two, turns to more.

Some days, Kushina almost forgets that she has had a crush on Minato since they were genin. And she doesn't mind that she's supposed to be on a mission to deter Minato from turning her into a total kunoichi has-been.

They laze about on the couch in Minato's apartment for dinner and a videotape movie, and Kushina makes variants of rice porridge for both of them. Jiraiya-sensei crashes for dinner often, and complains about the food when Kushina's in the kitchen wrecking havoc.

"What? Rice gruel? Minato, you're not as popular with the ladies as I thought. Surely you can do better than that," The hermit sage winks conspicuously at his student, who has the decency to look down and pretend not to hear, before protesting weakly "It's pretty good. I like it."

Anyone can notice that Kushina is starting to mellow out at the edges, though. She fights with strangers less frequently, and although the verbal abuse is still prevalent, the kicks and punches only occur during Minato's sparring matches with her. One time, an old Academy classmate actually catches Kushina at the grocery stands buying vegetables for dinner. He announces the _reformation of the fucking century_ to the whole town with much pomp and circumstance, and in the following three weeks, four men ask Kushina out to dinner and the movies.

Minato watches all of this happen with polite interest in his close friend.

(Polite, restrained interest. He's only threatened one particularly perverted, peeping chunnin with a painful death a la Yellow Flash.)

Jiraiya, ever-defying the impossible, actually becomes _more_ annoying and pesters his favorite student about ditching the redhead (knowing tomboy Kushina, Minato's likely friend-zoned anyway, Jiraiya teases) and getting a _real_ girlfriend already (one with tits and hips and more than willing to go to third base). The Yellow Flash of Konoha bats the suggestions away, saying he's busy training with his team and figuring out how to perfect the rasengan technique.

"Uh-huh… But not busy enough to skip out on dinner and movie night with Ku-shi-na-chan," Jiraiya snickers, before jumping out of the apartment window or another nearby exit to avoid being hit with a book or desk lamp.

* * *

**Suzu: I like Jiraiya a lot. I really do. Sometimes I wonder where he got that habit of escaping through windows.  
**


	13. Mission 13

**_Intermission 13_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

When Kushina falls sick, her body gets especially warm and then the Kyuubi chakra is steaming from billions of individual pores. Her blood feels like fire, and she endures the momentary discomfort before she is better.

When Minato is sick, Kushina's blood runs cold, and her own fingers are impossibly cold next to Minato's burning fever. She knows he'll recover—that this is just his body's inflammatory response to some internal disturbance. If she could, Kushina would perform "henge no jutsu" to turn herself into a blood cell, or a medicine pill, and do battle inside of Minato's body, against the germs or whatever the hell it is Doc told her (he tells her again and again, quickly losing patience with this obviously insane and overdemanding friend) happens when the human body is sick.

"Stop it, stopitstopitstopit," Kushina chants the mantra as if it will somehow prevent the evil viral invaders from prolonging Minato's cold (she imagines it's something like her own body's more permanent "guest"). She's rocking on the balls of her feet because she can't stand still and is deciding whether the ice pack in her right hand or the nasal drip spray in her other would do the trick and make Minato all better.

And then the Yellow Flash cracks open a blue (but a little red and watery eye) and tells her, "Can you keep it down, please", weakly, before pretending to sleep again, for her benefit.

This causes Kushina to go on a rampage. The red-haired kunoichi raps on the door of every single apartment suite in Minato's building to tell them to _**keep it down**, 'ttebane, or else_.

* * *

The Aburame brothers invite Kushina to go bug-hunting with them. They figure she's one of the few cooler kunoichi in the village who would be interested, and they can't register with the Konoha Community Center as an official shinobi hobby club unless there is at least one female member (official clubs receive a 2000 ryo monthly stipend).

Kushina gets pretty into it, catching a large Hercules beetle on the first excursion that she names Chashu (after the ramen topping she swears the lil' guy loves).

Minato thinks it's sweet, how she's willing to help those younger than her try out fun new hobbies. The blonde puffs up a little with pride and another unknown emotion when he sees Kushina, an experienced ninja, getting along so well with the two genin.

Nara Shikaku notices Minato staring at them goofing off in the town square one time and smirks knowingly at the blonde before pointing out that the scene would be "positively domestic, if it were anyone other than Kushina".

The hobby club goes swimmingly, if Kushina's growing beetle collection is any indication. But, being the incredibly observant ninja he is, Minato notices with time that the elder of the Aburame brother stares a little _too_ long at Kushina, especially at her chest. He also notices from Kushina's accounts of their adventures that the genin usually volunteer her to climb up the trees, and other physical exercises.

The next time she is asked by the Aburame brothers, Minato "happens" to overhear and announces that he'll be tagging along.

"Why?" The younger Aburame asks, honestly surprised. Kushina-neechan was known to be pretty immature, but surely the great Yellow Flash wouldn't have time to play with them.

"I like bugs . A lot." Minato forces a smile, and ruffles the kid's hair.

Secretly, Minato quite dislikes insects. He's slightly terrified of mosquitoes (something about bloodsuckers). He'll never admit this, though, because it took long enough to convince Kushina the first time that he wasn't a sissy.

* * *

Kushina discovers catalogue shopping one day and it's like the world has become bright and shiny and new.

Shinobi don't have that much time in between missions to do any personal shopping, and they certainly aren't supposed to wander around aimlessly in large civilian crowds in times of war. No one lacks personal items collected throughout the years, but no one really has time to buy into the consumer culture at the local markets, despite the Fire Country being a prosperous trading nation. Most of what the Konoha ninja own in clothes are standard issue mission and training garb, in green and blue. The one large shop that manufacturers standard wear is not run by the most fashionable sort of family. The Gai family have ran it for generations, and recently developed a new green spandex form-fitting enough to require the Konoha police to ticket anyone wearing it without under-armor (and it's not just because the Uchiha are prudes).

So when Kushina receives a superstore catalogue in the mail one day, she decides to do all her holiday shopping in the middle of June, and all her friends receive large delivery boxes with… interesting… contents over the next few days. Fugaku actually gets a book on tips during intercourse.

Minato opens his and is relieved to see a new CD he's been wanting to get. No harm done.

A month later, Minato finds an open catalogue on his living room table, which Kushina must have left accidentally when she last came over. Several pages are dog-earred, with a few items circled in fat black marker.

Minato flips to a page on which Kushina has scrawled, "HINT! THIS WOULD MAKE A GOOD BIRTHDAY PRESENT".

His eyes widen in surprise at the picture on the page.

* * *

**Suzu: what did Kushina dog-ear?**


	14. Mission 14

**_Intermission 14  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

When the mail order arrives, he gives it to her with a word of advice. "I think you're pretty enough without any makeup on."

"I think you're pretty enough" gets translated in her head as "you're pretty", which causes her to go red in the ears (not that anyone could see them behind a curtain of red hair) and look at the ground, fuming.

Actually, in Kushina's case, she vaguely wants to sucker punch Minato, who is a liar because he is _objectively_ far prettier than she or any normal person could ever hope to be. The red-haired kunoichi sighs before she decides that she's mature enough to handle this in an appropriate, blasé manner.

"Oh really?" she says in her best blasé tone.

"Really," Minato, village heartthrob, says with feeling. Kushina notices that Minato's hands are reflexively in front of his body, as if to deflect any imminent blows.

She huffs. "How would you know, you-you _man._ You've never seen me with any makeup on!"

"Um… I'm just saying you don't need it."

A liar. He's a darn liar. Kushina shakes her head, before snatching the package from him with a rueful smile.

* * *

Although only her closest friends would know, Kushina has a single tube of lipstick in her bottom-right drawer. She has never worn it (she went out and bought another tube to use on kunoichi missions), but absolutely refuses to toss it out or lend it to anyone else.

* * *

Konoha's residents are in a flurry of activity, because it's been quite a while since they've had a festival of any sort, so long since there's been a break from the fighting.

But the Third Hokage decides that even times of war called for occasional recreational activities, so he organized a _shinobi-civilian ball_. Part of it is to increase general morale; part of it is for the village's civilian residents to show their appreciation for the shinobi troops that fought each day to protect the land.

It could also have been the fact that the Yellow Flash is a common household name, or the fact that he's under twenty-five and pretty good-looking, but anyhow, Minato ends up with a small gaggle of girls following him every time he steps out into the street. He actually has to shepherd them around corners and streets carefully lest any villagers complain (to him) about the block in traffic.

This hasn't happened to him ever since his Academy days, before the rumor about him and Kushina got out and spread amongst the shinobi their age. For a good five minutes, Minato actually entertains starting that rumor up afresh just so he would be left alone (he stops when he carefully considers Kushina's reaction. She's been grooming her image of an "independent woman" for a while now, and probably doesn't want to be tied down to anybody, fake or not).

These days, though, Kushina has not a few admirers of her own.

The Red-Hot Habanera of Konoha might not have been as well-known as the Yellow Flash in enemy territory, but news about the unparalleled skill of her fuinjutsu and the whip of her blood-red hair before she crushed enemies spread like fire. And rumors of her good looks contributed to her growing list of suitors.

Even if they weren't interested in settling down with spitfire, they were certainly interested in trying her for one night and bragging to tell the tale.

* * *

"Third one today?" Minato's lips slide into a smile despite himself.

His companion has a large scowl on her face as she crumbles up the letter and uses it as a target practice ball. She tosses it to the trashcan on the other side of the Konoha street. It hits the wall of the bakery, and bounces off of it to land squarely in the trash.

"I thought girls were supposed to write sappy letters, not boys," Kushina mutters darkly. She sees Minato's face and protests, "Don't laugh!"

He offers no sympathy. "Well, it's only fair. You laughed at me all through the Academy and afterward."

"That was different," she retorts. "Those girls were crazy, not abysmally pathetic. Remember that psychotic one who stuck stun powder on the inside of her letter? I told you never to open them, but _nooo_, you had to be all Mr. Good-Guy and open them one by on—"

"Hey, listen—" Minato interrupts, suddenly.

Kushina cocks her head to look up at him (he's taller than her by a good half-head now). Minato is facing her, but she notices that his eyes aren't meeting hers. It's not exactly the clear, piercing, knee-wobbling stare he usually looks people square in the eye with.

"What?"

"I actually wanted to talk to you about, um…" His usually calm tenor is a bit high.

If Kushina didn't know any better, she would swear Minato's left eye was developing a nervous twitch. Huh, _weird_.

Minato clears his throat. "Let me start again. Do you want to just go to the dance with—uh," his eyes lock on hers, finally, with some difficulty. Kushina can definitely tell he's having trouble, now, which is strange, considering Minato's been her best friend for ages. He would tell her anything, right?

They are interrupted by a small squeak as a petite girl with reddish-blonde hair bumps into Minato from the corner of the street, dropping an enveloped letter in the process.

"Oi, watch where you're going," Kushina sighs. There isn't much bite in her tone, even though she's annoyed at being interrupted. In a way, Kushina feels a bit sorry for this one, who's no doubt going to try her luck in asking Minato to the big dance. The dance is tomorrow night, so, now or never.

The young girl lifts her head, and Minato's face shows recognition. "Misa-chan?"

She really _is_ petite, like the kind of delicate flower that Kushina tries and fails to grow in her biohazard-zone-apartment. Misa's violet eyes leak piteously with tears as Minato picks up her letter from the ground. It's an invitation, as expected.

"Is this for me?" he asks gently. Kushina resists the urge to yell at him and hit him upside the head for being so deceptively nice and leading girls on.

Misa nods, and Minato for some reason stares at Kushina pointedly for a split moment, as if reading her carefully blank face, before he opens Misa's letter slowly.

Kushina steps a few steps back in order to stop her curious self from being glaringly intrusive during Minato and this Misa's "moment". Kushina just hopes the poor girl doesn't take rejections too seriously. She turns around and is about to go check out what is for sale at the street stall a few feet away when Minato's voice states the impossible.

"Well, I accept."

_Say __**what**__?_


	15. Mission 15

**_Intermission 15  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

"You could've just told me you were going with a handicapp'd!" Kushina throws a set of kunai at Minato with what he thinks is more force than necessary.

He dodges them expertly (although Kushina always huffs about how he does it with ease, she's more creative in her throws than most, and Minato almost breaks a sweat), before quickly blocking a blow that was centimeters away from his face.

"Be nice, Kushina. Our families used to be neighbors. I played with Mitane Haruka all the time as a kid. She had to get surgery on her leg, so she's been recovering for two years. I haven't seen her since—ouch—that hurt!"

Kushina's punch connects this time, and Minato wisely shuts up and concentrates on sparring. His collarbone is going to bruise, badly, he thinks, as he throws a Thunder God kunai to a safe spot a few yards away.

"So… When... Are you… GOING?" Kushina's last word explodes with her kick off the ground, and she launches herself into the air before hammering a double-fisted blow to the spot on the ground that Minato had occupied a split second ago.

"Tonight. At six…"

Kushina pauses the fight, wiping away the sweat that dripped into her eyes. Minato tries to swallow the bad thoughts coming to his head as he watches her tip her head back and sweep long red strands of hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck.

"Oh. Okay. I guess I'll see you there, then."

Minato snaps out of his reverie. His eyes widen, and he composes his face immediately when Kushina's cocks an eyebrow at his shocked expression.

"What's so surprising, huh?"

He pretends to think in choosing his next words. In reality, he's trying to imagine Kushina in a dress, which he realizes is quite impossible to him. Despite Minato's prodigy-status, imagining something that farfetched wasn't within his capabilities. She knows that he knows that she would get all huffy anyway, if he tries to describe the shock to her. Kushina crosses her arms impatiently.

"Honestly, I just figured you wouldn't go to this type of thing unless there were enemy Mist ninja due to show up halfway through," he half-jokes, but is half-dead-serious.

Kushina snorts. "What's a few mist ninja compared to dancing in heels? I always go for the challenge."

* * *

Mikoto is the only female friend her own age that Kushina would ever ask for such a girly favor.

The Uchiha heiress knew about style, whereas some of Kushina's other female friends, like Inuzuka Tsume, probably only knew about hiking trails and training canines (not that Kushina was much better on the femininity scale).

"I thought Minato-kun would ask you," Mikoto muses, pinning up the last strand of Kushina's thick tresses.

"...Or you would ask him," the raven-haired kunoichi adds as she thoughtfully tries a side-do.

Kushina snorts.

"Yeah, well, he's just a thick-headed goody-goody. He's going with a childhood friend from the village who just got out of the hospital. Told me it was to 'strengthen the shinobi-civilian bond', and that was why Hokage-sama organized this event, blablah."

The redhaired tomboy is struggling to put on her only formal dress—a black gown she wore to mourning a couple of times. Mikoto suggested trying to make it more modern by removing the sleeves and cutting the neckline lower. Having slipped it on and looked in the mirror, even the fashion-blind Kushina has to admit Mikoto is some kind of a genius with the sewing needle.

"You'd make a good wife one day," Kushina sighs as Mikoto finishes inserting a tiny butterfly pin. "When is Fugaku coming?"

Mikoto smiles at the barefaced compliment. "Soon, after he finalizes tonight's patrol schedule for the Konoha Police Unit. But don't you have your own date to be finding? The dance starts in an hour."

Kushina blinks. Then claps her hands together as if remembering. "You're right, 'ttebane." If Mikoto didn't know Kushina as well, she would have missed the twinge of nervousness in her friend's set jawline.

"You look lovely." Mikoto assures Kushina, as she admires her finished work. "I bet you can go by yourself and just find someone at the dance."

Kushina _almost_ settles on that idea before remembering that Namikaze Minato has a proper date, and she will not lose, 'ttebane.

"Thanks for everything, Mikoto-chan. I'll see you at the dance. _With my date_."

Kushina leaves, wobbling a bit in her borrowed shoes. Mikoto's eyes crinkle in mirth when, five minutes later, a familiar voice announces loudly from the street right outside the Uchiha compound.

"OI! ANY OF YOU LOSERS WANNA TAKE ME TO THE DANCE?"


	16. Mission 16

**Suzu: Aaaah. Just get together already, you two.**

* * *

**_Intermission 16_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Kushina is the most cheerful when she's in a large crowd, smiling and laughing and cracking jokes at everything, but Minato's never pegged her for a dancer, especially not in the boy-girl social activities environment. Thus, he's actually a bit (okay, extremely)curious when he leads his own date to the entrance of the Konoha community center.

It's a fairly cold night, but the throngs of people are dressed lightly in a mix of yukata and ball gowns. Colorful lanterns are hung on thin wires stretching between glowing street lamps and beautifully illuminated shop fronts.

The inside of the community center has been cleared out for dance space, and the large ballroom is fairly packed with shinobi and villagers alike. Minato gets many waves, says hi to a lot of friends and acquaintances (he waves awkwardly to Obito's stern relatives and to Rin's parents), before pushing Haruka toward a group of harmless wallflowers and seniors who were chatting on the sidelines.

"Are you thirsty? I'll get us something," he states more than asks.

He leaves Haruka beside an approaching group of village girls who surround her right away and ask for details about how she managed to capture_ the_ Yellow Flash and if it involved duct tape and restraining orders on that weird, rabid Uzumaki girl.

On the way toward the long table full of refreshments and drinks, Minato looks for Kushina's characteristic red hair in the crowd. He actually notices it pretty quickly, right next to none other than Yamanaka Inoichi. Well, at least it made sense. Inoichi was one year behind them at the Academy, and his cousin happened to be Yamanaka Aiko, Kushina's long-time friend and confidant. Still, Inoichi is a bit of a flirt, as well as a resident playboy.

Kushina looks animated enough, engaged in conversation with her date. Her red hair is twisted up elaborately and secured with tiny butterfly pins, and her cheeks are flushed a pretty pink against her creamy white skin.

Minato grips his drinks a little tighter and makes a mental note to keep an eye on them, before returning to where he left his own date.

* * *

"Haru," Minato uses his date's childhood name. "How are your legs now?"

Mitane Haruka is an extremely pretty girl with strawberry-colored hair and big, doe-like brown eyes. Minato's seen several villagers and shinobi stares linger on her tonight.

"The surgery worked, thanks to Tsunade-sama, so I'll be out of this wheelchair in three months, Minato-kun. Thank you for bring me here tonight," she smiles at him gently, and Minato suddenly gets a vision of what it would be like to spend his time with a nice, demure girl instead of the feisty one who treated him about as gently as Gamabunta did when drunk.

Yamashiro Aoba sidles up to them, goggles and all despite it being nighttime and a party setting. The young chunnin pokes Minato in the sides to get his attention.

"So the Yellow Flash is into redheads, huh?"

Haruka blinks in confusion, her hand going to her short red curls. Minato has an uncharacteristic moment of intense dislike for Aoba before he pats the younger shinobi on the back firmly and says smoothly what a funny joke that was, ha… ha.

Out of the corner of his eye, Minato spots an incoming Yamanaka Inoichi, likely making his way through the crowd to talk to Aoba, who is well-known to admire the older jounin immensely.

"Hello, Inoichi-san. Long time no see," Minato nods. "Do you happen to know where Kushina is?"

Minato hopes he doesn't sound too eager. Inoichi looks at him knowingly (as only a mind-reading specialist can) before stating that Uzumaki Kushina stepped outside to talk with Inuzuka Tsume. "Kushina's one thing, but I can't stand that Inuzuka girl," Inoichi shudders. "She's even got her dog with her tonight!"

"Haru, could you excuse me for a moment? I have to talk to Uzumaki-san about some equipment to pack for our upcoming mission," Minato says.

It's not a lie, really. They do have another mission together. It's in about two weeks, and Minato has been counting down the days.

* * *

Minato finds Kushina with her hair loose and streaming on the windy hilltop. It's much colder out here, and Minato shivers slightly in his light button down shirt, suddenly wishing for his familiar jounin vest. Kushina shifts awkwardly in (actually, were those?) heels, her back turned to Minato.

He places a hand on her shoulder and she jumps a good inch before she twists around and snaps, "Teme, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry, sorry. What are you doing?" he asks her. There are not a lot of people outside, this far away from the main dance hall.

"Tsume wanted to come to the back of the hall so Kuromaru could poo in peace," she states frankly. Minato's mouth twitches to keep from laughing. "But then the Third's ol' lady came out and caught us. She actually sent Tsume home, after demanding we clean up after Kuromaru."

"Sarutobi Biwako did?" Minato is vaguely impressed. The severe-looking woman was always dispensing "advice", but she was especially nice to Minato, and sent him cookies every New Year's.

Kushina pulls her loose hair into ponytail at the top of her head and pulls off a frighteningly accurate Biwako-impression. "_Dogs_ don't go to dances! Go home and think about _that_, young lady!"

Minato can't contain his laughter, and Kushina joins in. The two share a few moments of mirth on the hill before a sharp breeze sweeps over both their lightly clothed bodies.

"So, how was dancing in heels?" He wants to ask '_how was dancing with Inoichi_', but he's too dishonest and cowardly for that.

"Nearly killed him," Kushina motions to her feet in exasperation. "These are instruments of torture—for men, women, and shinobi alike."

"Huh, I'd like to have seen that," Minato chuckles. This is a lie, too. He's been watching them (her) all night.

"Good thing that date of yours is still in a wheelchair. Betcha even the Yellow Flash can't avoid being stepped on by these things."

"Try me."

Minato blurts out the words before his brain can even register. The moon peeks out from a patch of clouds, and Kushina's skin glows alabaster as she turns toward him. Her eyes get wide for a split second before she grins almost predator-like.

"Oh yeah, 'ttebane?"

Minato holds out his hand.

In his mind, he's a good fighter, not a good dancer. Most of his partners that night (some village girls who'd had the pluck to ask for a dance) had not been able to keep up with his unpredictable pace and subtle lead.

Kushina discovers that Minato is light on his feet, and extremely well-balanced. Minato finds that Kushina is the perfect counterpart; she's steady while he's agile. When he transitions from step to step a bit too quickly, the solid pressure of her hand on his shoulder roots him in her natural sense of rhythm.

Minato is reminded of their first sparring match years ago, and the deep sense of intimacy he'd felt, as if their blows had been part of an intricate dance. He can tell by the way Kushina's gaze is concentrated on him, and his on her, every detail being soaked in hungrily, that this is just another way of sparring. Or perhaps sparring was just another way of dancing. He's unsure which is which. He's never sure with Kushina.

Kushina's hand touches his elbow lightly. Minato is suddenly very aware of the heat of her body temperature, and how easy it would be to lean down and brush away the strand of hair that's fallen into her eyes.

"Ne," she says, breaking the rhythm. "Minato, I'm cold."

Part of Minato's brain shuts down. Kushina is pouting at him.

The other part tells him that this is probably another impression, something intended to make him laugh due to its sheer out-of-character-ness. But Kushina takes a tiny step closer, so that the front of their bodies are almost touching, and Minato only has to turn his head to see down the low cut of her sleeveless dress and he is _not_ _doing that_ if he wants to live and not be castrated and eventually bear children with someone.

All Minato has under his button-down chemise is a light cotton T-shirt, but he begins unbuttoning the top buttons dutifully, resolutely not looking Kushina's way.

Her hand reaches out to stop him. "It's okay. You'll catch something if you give that to me. Here."

And then Kushina is pressing the side of her body flush next to his, and, kami-sama, _exactly when_ did she develop _curves_, and _just why_ is her arm linking with his like that and _how many_ _more _seconds of this sweet torture until she reaches over and clobbers him because he's pretty sure his face has gone slack-jawed like Jiraiya-sensei's when the man goes on one of his "data-gathering trips".

He feels her pulling at his arm. "Hurry up."

He's not sure if that's his own heart or Kushina's heart thumping loudly against his side, but he's not going to analyze this further as both of them half-walk, half-run down the hill and back toward the throng of people in the lit-up village.


	17. Mission 17

**_Intermission 17  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

The Konoha villagers are going to set up fireworks. Kushina asks Minato if he wants to come watch it with her from _his_ apartment, which she explains has a great view of the back of the Konoha community center where they're firing them off.

(He is uncertain for about three seconds on how to respond to this backwards invitation.)

Minato acquiesces when he sees Kushina shiver (she might be pretending, his brain tells him. He ignores his brain). Minato asks her to wait up, because he has to go check up on his date first.

Kushina just huffs and tells him to hurry up, she hasn't got all night.

* * *

After the fireworks display, Minato decides it's only logical to invite Kushina to stay over at his apartment. It's late, and she's half asleep anyhow.

Minato imagines they'll be hell to pay tomorrow morning, when he's meeting Jiraiya-sensei for special rasengan training. The Hentai-Sennin (Kushina's nickname had caught on) had seen Minato take Haruka home before running back (as if his life depended on it, Jiraiya had commented snidely) to the dance to meet up with Kushina.

Minato realizes he doesn't really care what his Sensei will say, though, as he shifts Kushina on her back and spreads out the futon on the floor of his apartment. She's surprisingly heavy for her slim figure, and Minato attributes it to all the extra taijutsu training they'd been doing of late. He gingerly lifts the girl up and deposits her on his bed, careful to take out the sharp-edged butterfly pins still stuck at odd places in her silky but impossibly tangled mass of hair.

Kushina's mouth forms a three-syllable word, and Minato has to forcibly dismiss the thought that it's his name on her lips (himself in her dreams) before heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he comes back to the bedroom and lies down on the futon, he wonders belatedly if he should have moved the futon to the living room instead. It might not be proper to sleep in the same room, though he and Kushina had slept in much closer quarters on many of their missions together.

* * *

Kushina wakes up in the middle of the night.

It's dark but the moonlight is shining in through a window, though it's all wrong and the configuration is definitely not her own bedroom.

It takes a moment to register that she's sleeping over at Minato's house and that this is _Minato's bed_. Flustered, Kushina feels a heaving protest at the pit of her stomach and she realizes this must be the rice alcohol that Inoichi had gotten for her to drink from the refreshment stand. She swings her legs off the bed onto the cold wooden floor to rush to the bathroom (she knows his apartment layout like the back of her hand), but her gaze falls upon a sleeping figure lying in a futon at the base of the bed.

It's _Minato_, she realizes with a start. She would have thought him to be a super-straight-lace type that sleeps in the other room, but it seems he simply put her to bed first and then never bothered to move the futon.

Kushina stares at him, transfixed, watching the rise and fall of his chest. Minato has always been a light sleeper on all their missions together, so it's rare to see him at rest without any concerns, his jaw slack and a bit of a snore coming from the oh-so-deadly assassin.

The romantic crush she'd harbored in childhood comes back to her at that moment, like cloyingly sweet bile that intoxicates her. The Yellow Flash is devastatingly handsome by objective standards. She can make out the soft signs of stubble coming in, just a little bit, over the more angular, masculine planes of his jaw.

Kushina swallows, hard. There is nothing feminine about him, not anymore. She pushes herself off the bed and comes to the side of his futon, sitting down with her hands pushed up against her chin. He can't hear her. It's okay.

"Wanna know something funny?" Kushina peers intently over Minato's sleeping face. "I used to think you were in love with me, and that's why you'd rescued me and all," she whispers.

It's dark in the room except for the ray of light that falls on the futon where she's sitting, staring at a boy-who-must-never-know, as if she were still twelve years old and pining for him.

"You're not, right? You've never been—not _that_ way, to _me._" Kushina pauses, afraid of her own words. "That's why it's okay. If we're friends… then _this_ won't mean anything."

She leans down, closer, closer.


	18. Mission 18

**Suzu: ****Don't worry-I haven't dropped what went on in the past story "arc". It will come into play sooner than you think. **  


* * *

_**Intermission 18**  
_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Jiraiya sloshes down another cup of sake before pouring Tsunade another.

"They grow up so fast…" he states, distaste rolling off his tongue like a bittersweet aftertaste. "Before you know it, that Minato is going to get hitched to some violent kunoichi."

His drinking partner raises a light blonde eyebrow. "I thought you _wanted _him to settle down."

"Sure I do, but to some nice village girl! You can't woo a girl properly if she's able to kill you a thousand different ways." Jiraiya looks at Tsunade pointedly.

The kunoichi ignores the insinuation (she's had experience), and tips back her cup. "Hm, but we all know that redheaded Whirlpool girl's staked her claim on him."

"Kushina-chan?" A forlorn sigh escapes the Toad Sage. "Minato insists it's platonic. But it's more like a ticking time bomb." Jiraiya shudders briefly, because a platonic relationship with Kushina is already more than enough for a hundred men to handle.

Never let it be said that masochism does not run from teacher to student.

"Well, we can help things out a bit," Tsunade muses with a glint in her eye, and Jiraiya swallows with some difficulty. "Let's make it a bet."

* * *

It's much less awkward than Minato expected when they both wake up in the morning, each in their separate beds. Sure, he had a funny dream and all, but she is still his best friend, and her light snores on his bed are endearing in a pure, Academy-days way. He enjoys the peace of the moment, pooling his futon bedding to his knees and dozing lightly. Eventually, he hears Kushina get up first and make her way over to his bathroom and turn on the faucets.

Minato gets up after she's left the bedroom. He showers second and marvels at two fine red strands that she overlooked in picking up after herself after her shower. He rinses and shaves quickly, before heading out of the bathroom in a fresh shirt and slacks.

Kushina is tinkering around in his kitchen. Really, Minato swears that she does more cooking in his apartment than in her own. The bleary-eyed, red-haired kunoichi emerges in a sort of makeshift apron made from tying her (probably expensive) black gown on either side of her waist. In combination with Minato's forest green sweats, her ensemble looks almost comical.

Kushina apparently doesn't see what's funny from Minato's twitching lips.

"Yo. D'you want scrambled eggs or toast?"

He looks at her curiously. "Uh—no more rice porridge? What's the occasion?"

She stares at him through stormy, narrowed eyes, before she presses her lips into a firm line and stomps back into the kitchen.

"Thought I'd at least _try_, you ungrateful _idiot_."

* * *

Kushina's favorite fatigues are a deep navy blue. They're durable and worn and sometimes, Minato thinks he can see a small tear that's been sewn up again with matching blue thread (in miraculously meticulous, tiny strokes). She always packs them for longer missions, in case the one on her back gets ruined by inclement weather, wilderness brambles, or other commonplace shinobi hazards.

Her red hair trails just below her hip. The fringe is secured away from her face with a small, unobtrusive clip. Kushina owns five different colors of this same clip, which she uses interchangeably according to her mood, or according to her clothing choice that day. Recently, she's been favoring pale yellow quite a bit (Minato keeps track, or maybe he's just observant). Today, she's exchanged the clip for her hita-ete, which she ties snugly against her forehead. The rest of her scarlet hair she sweeps into a high ponytail.

They meet at the intersection by the plum tree and walk down the route to the gates of Konoha. They've done this before. Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred times. Kushina smells of wildflowers and something sharper, like cloves. Minato attributes this to her shampoo and body wash. When she accidentally brushes up close, a breeze blows by, and Minato feels lucky to catch her unique, timeless scent of … warm sunshine. He doesn't share this thought with anyone, since he figures waxing lyrical is something he'll leave to Jiraiya.

"Oi! Nara! You ready?!"

Shikaku is leaning against one of the large posts marking the entrance to the village. He grimaces at Kushina's energetic greeting, before turning to Minato. "There you guys are. I scoped out the maps of the region yesterday. Let's make this a quick one, yeah?"

* * *

**Suzu: ****Thank you to those who take the time to drop a review. Feedback is always making an impact, really.**  



	19. Mission 19

_**Intermission 19**_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

The morning light penetrates the makeshift tent propped on a damp patch of forest floor. Kushina wakes and rubs gunk from her eyes, chasing dreams of whooping enemy nin's arses to tomorrow as well as of Teuchi-san's new mega-spicy ramen challenge bowl.

Missions with Minato are better than most. They're quick, for one. Time passes quickly either because he is the Yellow Flash (and thus absurdly fast and deathly efficient at anything he puts his mind to) or because she's hung out with him since they were children, and their easy banter is as effortless as breathing.

Three days before, the Konoha team cleaned up a group of mercenaries turned rogues who frequently terrorized residents and livestock of a village in Wave Country. This job is especially lucrative, given that the village's mayor has been a livestock trader for decades now. It's still an ordinary B-rank. None of the Konoha shinobi receive any injuries, except for the fact that an aggressive bull nearly skewered Minato after he "flashed" to its favorite resting spot.

"There."

Truthfully, Kushina sucks at bandaging wounds. But she plays nurse to Minato because the scratch on the curve of his shoulder is hard to reach. Kushina smears the area with ointment before ripping off thirty times the amount of gauze needed from the supply roll and practically mummifies part of Minato's body.

Minato sighs inwardly, knowing he'll have trouble fitting back into his favorite shirt. Nonetheless, he turns toward Kushina, to thank her for her painstaking effort. But Kushina stops him with a slap to his back.

"Hey! No moving. I'm not done!"

Swiftly, the red-haired kunoichi swoops down to blow gently on the white gauze wrapped injury around Minato's shoulder. The sensation of her soft long hair brushing his neck is enough to send shivers up the blonde ninja's spine.

She leans back with a jubilant, accomplished grin. "Tsunade-sama told me right before the mission that this move makes it all better. It's, like, this cool new jutsu she's developed."

Minato considers knocking Jiraiya-sensei out for his big mouth. No doubt he wrangled Tsunade-sama into this. (Also, judging by the look on Shikaku's bemused face as the two emerged from the tent, another town gossip is born.)Nara Shikaku, the third member of their team, was the same Academy class as Kushina and Minato. The raven-haired man has smarts, which more than makes up for his limited chakra reserves. Back in the day, he hung out with Minato quite a bit, although Shikaku never quite understood his friend's interest in the redheaded refugee.

The atmosphere is quietly cheerful. They clean up the camp swiftly, expecting it to be their last morning away from their actual beds.

And then a rustling in the bushes reveals one small boy, one small girl—two sandy-haired urchins with bony limbs and terrified eyes.

* * *

"You can't." Kushina's eyes are steel.

"Shit, Uzumaki. Just because some orphaned kids want to _play house_ doesn't mean you can abandon post out here in the middle of nowhere."

"They have no one else—according to their story, those blasted bandits ruined their hometown before the brutes went to the one we went to. The only difference is that their village had no money to pay for shinobi help. Let's walk them to a neighboring town, who can help them rebuild their village." Kushina insists. "It'll only be a day's travel, at most. You guys can go ahead, if you want."

Shikaku snorts. "Two days to the nearest village. I read the damn maps, remember?"

Minato's calm tenor is like a slap to Kushina's face. "Shikaku is right, Kushina. The Hokage expects us back by sundown, as valuable additions to Konoha's security. You know that these are not exactly times of peace. The best policy would be to bring these two to Konoha with us, and settle them down there—for their own sakes."

"So they can slowly forget their heritage, forget that they were ever given a chance to go back and retrieve their parents' legacy, just so they can wear a Konoha leaf _without knowing what they sacrificed—will sacrifice—in return_?" she seethes.

"The Land of Fire is prosperous," Minato reasons. "It's their gain."

"It's their _choice_."

Shikaku is staring pointedly at Minato. As squad leader, it's his move—he just needs to voice a direct order to Kushina, and she could not refuse him. And yet, it doesn't take a smart cookie to know that the tension crackling between the two belie unspoken volumes. The redhead has always been spitfire, and now she burns with a low glow like embers waiting to erupt.

"Kushina…" Minato starts.

"I'll be back. Don't wait up," Kushina grinds out, before turning on her heel and descending the treetops toward two small figures huddled at their camp.


	20. Mission 20

_**Intermission 20**_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Minato feels betrayed, although he can't put his finger on who's to blame. Part of him just wants to bang his head against a tree for pushing Kushina into a corner, but _that_ only had a 0.5 percent chance of helping the situation at hand. He should have known better. He's known Uzumaki Kushina for years—and still ends up realizing time and time again that he doesn't _know_ her. He'll never understand the feeling of having one's entire world erased, and being dropped off in another. Instead, all he can do is play this game of confrontation, coming frustratingly close, only to lecture her into a wall, before Kushina lashes out and dashes farther away from him. He can't downplay the worry gnawing at the pit of his stomach, though, and imagines about twenty different scenarios where Kushina is strictly reprimanded or, worse, exiled from Konoha (and from him) before deciding to say something.

"Those kids showing up so suddenly… Something doesn't feel right about this." Minato looks to his raven-haired compatriot with his best "I'm concerned" look.

Shikaku only raises an eyebrow as he keeps busy keeping his footing as they jump swiftly from tree branch to tree branch.

"If you ask me, something doesn't feel right about Uzumaki."

Minato wants to defend Kushina, then realizes he can't come up with anything remotely convincing except "she's Kushina". Luckily, Shikaku reads between the lines of Minato's silence.

"She's Uzumaki Kushina. I know, I know. Whirlpool kunoichi extraordinaire, last defender of her people, and future leader of both Konoha and a rebuilt Uzu. You weren't the only one that heard her declarations in the Academy, Minato."

"She's impressing her own experiences on those kids," Minato adds. A much cooler part of his brain wants to slap himself. Hello, and nice to meet you, Mr. Obvious.

"Uh huh," Shikaku agrees. "The _first_ things they taught us _not _to do as shinobi. Partiality and empathy."

Ah—yes, there was that. "You're right. But still…"

Shikaku smiles wryly at his flustered blonde friend, then shrugs, raising his hands in defeat.

"Okay, let's just go get her already. Besides, what's the Sandaime gonna say when he sees her missing? You know how he secretly dotes."

* * *

The more Kushina thinks about it, the more Minato's words resonate in her head. Sure, he's never won an argument against her, but at the end of the day, Kushina sees his side of the story anyhow. Now that she's traveled at least a good hour with the two orphans, Kenka and Momoko, her head feels ready to explode.

"I get that you kids really want to go back and repopulate your own village… I just want you to know, it's a big task, dattebane. And, in a way, the Land of Fire isn't half bad," she tries in her best adult voice. Momoko's dirt-smudged face peers at her curiously, but Kenka's eyes remain hollow as the tiny boys picks up the pace over hard hilly terrain.

"Sure, you'll feel like an outsider for a long time, but don't let bullies get you down. Hey, I know! How about I teach you two some basic taijutsu? Then you can beat the bullies up, 'ttebane."

They've now left the forests behind them and a large, impressive-looking crest of granite cliffs jut out ahead. The small, narrow road above is too dangerous for two untrained children to walk across.

"Whew, are you sure this is the way?" Kushina notices the small boy bent over a few feet away, with his back to her. '_The squirt must be tired._' "Um, you guys wanna take a five-minute break or something?"

"Yes, take a break," his sister adds. Her lower lip trembles slightly.

Kushina eyes the young boy, who hasn't moved an inch. "Kenka? What say you?"

Kenka remains silent. ('_Huh, he could give Kakashi a run for his money,_' Kushina notes.) And then—

"Kirigakure no Jutsu." A looming mist stifles her throat like wet cotton and completely wipes out her ability to see past her nose.

_Aw_, _f—._

Kushina does her best impression of a maiden in_ abject_ _distress_, and releases a few more strings of colorful curses.


	21. Mission 21

**Suzu: I am updating a big, ol' serious Kushina/Minato story, called Vainglory. It's probably... sexier than this story?  
**

**I haven't plugged it yet, so here's my shameless plug. ~-~-[]=  
**

* * *

_**Intermission 21**_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

_Ptooie._

Kushina's mouth forms a perfectly circular 'o' as she feels something wet and slimy slide down the crown of her head, which elicits hysterical cackling.

Here, the lady doth resist the urge to go batshit ballistic, for there is nothing less cool than screwing up the timing, even if every fiber of Kushina's being wants to artlessly dent somebody's spine ninety degrees to the right.

Really, thugs ought to be made of sterner stuff than tattered outer-clothes and gruesomely yellow teeth. That's all she managed to glimpse before a blindfold was swept over her fog-blurred eyes. Hearing the click-clack of the cargo wagon and inhaling the stench of testosterone and sweat, Kushina grimaces around her gag in a meager attempt to seem pitiful and delicate as rough hands prod at her side. Why did she even pretend to be captured?

"Hey honey, those brats are working for us. They bring travelers to this cliff. We sell the good lookin' ones off for a nice sum of money," someone taunts. As a child, Kushina had plently of imagination. She imagines the man grins slowly, his lips bright with spittle.

_Payback will be sweet_, she promises. _It's just the timing that's tricky… because they probably still have a hold on those kids._

It is no exaggeration to say Uzumaki Kushina is slowly learning the virtue of patience.

* * *

Shikaku isn't a slouch when it comes to brilliant ideas. He has them now and then, but still, the quality and quantity is much more than what the average person conjures up.

The Idea © comes into being as he realizes three things while talking to a big, brutish fella by a medium-sized wooden caravan.

1. There is one Uzumaki Kushina inside the caravan. _'Troublesome.'_

2. Those kids, who he's determined were working for these brutes all along, haven't revealed their true identities as Konoha shinobi to these slave traders. '_Tch, little brats. We have that much to thank them for, at least'_.

And lastly:

3. Judging by the way Minato's face looks (no more details can be spared, the memory is far too terrifying) when the bandit tells them about the "new redhead is gonna make a mint" in the sex trafficking business, _someone_ has got it bad, bad, bad. '_Shit. Guy's a goner._'

Naturally, the execution of The Idea © is up to him, the best friend.

"I'm the bodyguard. They just got married, and I'm the chaperone," Shikaku says, lying mouth glib as a fish in water. Thank kami he and Minato performed henge no jutsu before approaching. The two Konoha shinobi look like two traveling merchants, each with miraculously clean hakama pants.

"Why're you all the way out here, then?"

"Her fiancé lives in the Fire Country, and that's where they got hitched ten days ago. She's from Tsunami. They're going back to her house to pay their respects, as is the village custom. So please give her back," Shikaku adds with finality. The raven-haired man gives the mercenary a scary look—about as scary as Chouza's old, obese cat. Devouring dusty texts on the region in the Konoha library wasn't a total waste, it seems. Take the bait, take it.

The mercenary grins. He's visibly relaxed, given Shikaku's knowledge of obscure wedding customs from an obscure part of the land.

"You." He motions at Shikaku. "We don't need bodyguards causing trouble. Leave. And if I catch you following, you'll get a taste of this." His eyes slide to the large, curved sword attached to his waist pouch. The large fellow's teeth are a horrible, clichéd yellow as his eyes leer at a fairly attractive but fairly harried-looking Minato.

Shikaku looks at the blonde next to him, eyeing his partner meaningfully, and Minato gives a small, curt nod, in earnest.

The tactician resists the urge to roll his eyes. The blonde, who can be pretty thick for a genius, has probably translated it as "Stay safe. I'll go ahead and tell the Hokage. You rescue Kushina."

Shikaku actually means to say: "Stay safe, though Kushina has already eaten you alive. Ciao. Was nice knowing ya, bud."


	22. Mission 22

_**Intermission 22**_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

The first show is terrible. Minato is awkward, Kushina is cold, and the scattered audience actually _boos_ them out of the small peepshow bar. Usually, Kushina would have at least tried to sexily strangle her partner or something, in an effort to save her dignity, at least. But the two undercover shinobi are fighting, and there's one more afternoon show before their captors take them to the base of the trafficking chain.

* * *

After they were both beaten (lightly, for fear of injuring the "show") and then verbally assaulted by their captors, both Minato and Kushina settle into a post-post-traumatic silence that can only be called camaraderie. After all, Minato reasons, road trips (if this counts) are the time for reconciliation.

"You okay?"

"Piss off, jerk."

Or, alternatively, a time for more fighting. He sighs.

"…Look, I don't get you."

Her answering look is almost comical, with scrunched nose and squinted eyes. "The hell you don't get me. We've been friends for five years." She keeps to herself the fact that she also not-so-secretly loathed and envied him for quite a bit of that time.

"Think about it," he says. "I've been away on missions, and so have you. There's been a war. We've always been busy with the present." He's making excuses now. Excuses for his own incompetence and the distance they've both kept safely between them. "We barely have time to know each other and, you know, our pasts. What makes us tick."

"You know Nara. You know that Yamanaka-playboy." She won't look at him; instead, her eyes bore holes into Minato's shirt.

"Right, but they're a bit easier to crack than you are. I've known them all my life."

"_Oh_, so I'm a stupid puzzle now? Some game for you to play 'ttebane?"

"No!" he insists. "You're my friend and, ah—um." Minato shuts himself up before he steps on a landmine.

If the look in Kushina's eyes is fury or frustration or a quiet, disconcerted sadness Minato cannot tell.

"Why did you save me then?" she murmurs in a small whisper. "Both times."

Minato doesn't know what to say without sounding awkward. They're inches away from the landmine. The eighteen-year old him, a far cry from his bolder, idealistic thirteen-year old self, finds that his mouth has gone totally dry.

"You're an important part of Konoha," he tries a line from his youth. This time around, the words are like a dry husk.

Still, _an important part of me_ sounds so much cornier.


	23. Mission 23

_**Intermission 23**_

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

He understands how important getting to those children is to her.

Kushina is like some outlandish superhero, chasing away bad guys with a conviction only she has, and rescuing those weaker than her with a sense of justice that comes as naturally as breathing. Still, Kushina seeks reconciliation with as much enthusiasm as getting bitten by a dog.

Someone has to be the adult in this relationship, Minato figures. It may as well be him.

"You're an important part of Konoha."

* * *

She understands that this guy is some sort of saint.

She _hates_ that about Minato, because one day he'll get shackled with the worst responsibilities of being a ninja, one with a big fat suicide footnote attached to the mission briefing or something. And then who'll save his sorry butt from himself? Still, in times like these, saintly qualities are okay—useful, even—and Kushina has to be equal parts annoyed and grateful.

Ceasefire is delivered in bits and pieces. So she adds an exploding tag to it.

"I know. Probably more so than you."


	24. Mission 24

**Suzu: There's no mistletoe. But there's something to make up for it. **

**P.S.**** Don't be an Inoichi. ****Be a Minato. ;)**_  
_  


* * *

**_Intermission 24_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

_- 2 hours. 3 minutes. -_

They'd both known there would be one more pit stop until they could finally complete the mission. In their line of work, this isn't uncommon. After all, why did a kunoichi have to buy (discount) makeup in the first place? Facts and truths, though, don't make this any easier.

_- 1 hour. 22 minutes. -_

Nothing is romantic on a stage, being watched by grimy bar lechers who've had too much to drink.

That's why she _tolerates_ this mess they've gotten themselves into (she's gotten both of them into).

_- 45 minutes. -_

The plan they (painstakingly, after long silences and jumbled logic) develop is simple, and it involves minimal actual contact, just enough to go further than the awkward-standing-on-stage trick they did earlier on the road. Their captors make it clear there's to be one good snog session (the intensity and duration of which the two shinobi agree on lowering considerably), and they will do that much, before the establishment's backup dancers sashay onstage to steal the show.

_- 10 minutes until curtain rise. -_

"So I'll kiss your... uh."

"Kage bunshin." Minato doesn't look her in the eye, but his face is a bit pink. "I promise it'll be on its best behavior."

"It better," Kushina grinds out hotly. "Something about that picture is very wrong, dattebane."

Minato is silent, and keeps his eyes planted firmly on the ground.

* * *

He puts the money on the worn counter, before leaving to meet Akimichi at the hospital to tell him that Shikaku has gotten back (his purchase of flowers, though, are for the pretty nurse that works the evening shift, not for his longtime teammate, 'cause that'd be gross, man).

Yamanaka Inoichi isn't the most suave bachelor in Konoha for nothing. Nurse aside, the florist is practically in love with him, with all the tell-tale signs of averted eyes, warm cheeks and doe-like eyes, and Inoichi has half a mind to take her behind the bushes and… well, you know, heh heh.

Chouza's hand slaps him against the back, like a load of bricks, and the blonde realizes with a start that he's recounted a bit more in detail than he'd thought.

"Owww, aren't you supposed to be injured?"

Chouza shrugged, unrepentant. "Unlike you, my head is still screwed on straight. How could you play around with a nice, working girl like that?"

"Says a guy with no experience. You've never even kissed anyone," Inoichi runs his fingers through his mussed strands of hair, frowning. "Don't get worked up. I haven't touched her _yet_." He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

After all, it's just good fun, right? Now... if only the rest of his late-blooming friends would catch on.

* * *

Hands clenched, Kushina walks onto the stage, where a blindfolded man with straw colored hair is waiting for her, tied to a chair with ropes he could have easily snapped in two.

This is the second and last show. _Make it good. Make it count._ Make the drivers take the both of them to their final destination.

"Nn." Kushina blinks rapidly, as the spotlight comes on.

It's half past ten and the _world_ is turning. Colors, lights, weaving in rich brocades and silks as she watches, horrified, as sudden stage-fright punches her in the gut. She remembers the three vices of shinobi, the old adage echoing in her head. '_Women, Sake, Money'_. Here they are, in the middle of it all. The cheering and clapping from the audience is thunderous.

Kushina makes sure Minato can hear her by breathing into his ear. "Are you sure?" Then, with a murderous look, "I can castrate them all. Right here."

He shakes his head. _Don't._

With the blindfold on, Minato can't see the fear in her steely storm-grey eyes, but he senses a tremor pass through her arms as she holds his head in place. "_Hurry up_," is the resounding echo of the audience members, repeated by their captors behind the curtains, so Kushina leans even closer.

She brings his face forward so that it's perfectly aligned with hers.

"Right then. For now, just for now, pretend that you love me, o-or something."

Minato wants to sweep his hand under the pale curve of her cheek and _try_ to pretend—he can already imagine five different ways to make her breathless, panting his name—but he _can't_ play this game, because it may not be pretend anymore. Minato can feel her warm breath on his lips; they're that close. It would be that easy to comply with the full implication of her demand.

Instead, he nods, imperceptibly, half-heartedly beating away the fantasies running through his head, but in the breathless lull in which his brain is occupied with that task, _it_ just sort of slips out. "Go 'head. It's the second time, after all."

"Wha—" the redhead frowns, as a whole new level of panic rises in her throat at two realizations, one of which is: this is _not_ a shadow clone, the second of which is: he _knows_.

Too late.

They come together, and Kushina's grimace is wiped clean off. It's like sparks fly and a fire that can't be quenched by ordinary means burns in the pit of his stomach. Something primal in Minato scratches against the cool, rational exterior he's taken years to build up. There's the feeling of having oneself peeled away, bit by bit, like an onion. And then there's the feeling of having your walls crash down, bulldozed right over by some freak force of nature. In this moment, Minato experiences the latter.

He would thank these bastards for bringing him to this realization, after he punched out every last one.


	25. Mission 25

**_Intermission 25_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

A plump, bulging letter arrives on the Hokage's desk, inconspicuous, if a little weighty, sliding down a mountain of other relatively pressing correspondence. This occurs exactly two hours before Namikaze Minato returns through Konohagakure's front door, and two and a half hours before Uzumaki Kushina returns through Konohagakure's side door.

It turns out a fast-growing trafficking ring located in the small borderland states of Konoha and Iwa had been causing some trouble, and the ringleaders had been stealing healthy young men and women from poorer villages for months. The extremely eloquent (read: verbose) local council board is delighted at their capture—by two Konoha shinobi, no less—and promises via sealed and stamped letter to use Konohagakure shinobi from the Land of Fire more often.

For the mission briefing report, the Hokage calls a young jounin team leader to his office and personally thanks Minato with a pat on the back, delighted with the boy's potential not only for offensive missions but also, apparently, making peace and building better relations among villages. Honest, the Yellow Flash makes some humble side-steps, fanning the praise over to his kunoichi teammate, who really did instigate the whole thing. "Thank her, not me."

Before the Yellow Flash fully manages to step out of the office, the Sandaime inquires (nosiness grows with age, maybe) to the purpling bruise next to the lad's right eye, figuring it would take a very skilled thug indeed to land a hit on Konoha's fastest jounin.

Namikaze Minato winces. "You can thank Kushina for this one as well, Hokage-sama," he reports before leaving.

* * *

"If justice exists in the world, you wouldn't be crawling on fours to win your way back into her good graces after complying with _her _whimsical demands in the first place," Jiraiya waxes lyrical. "But nothing's fair about this world full of women. Cheer up, kid. You did nothing wrong."

Minato remains despondent, busying himself with rearranging the chopsticks that came with his takeout lunch. His sensei, illustrious frog hermit and wooer of women, perches on his student's table top, recounting his own heroic exploits of youth with Tsunade in an effort to cheer the young blonde. Jiraiya stops his reminiscence (did I tell you about the one time Tsunade-hime dumped a bucket of red paint on me and kicked me into a bull pen) long enough to turn back to the task of diagnosing the root of this new excommunication.

"Nothing wrong. Unless—ah," the Toad Hermit leers over the counter, expression half-stern, half-triumphant at the thought of his pupil's possible exploits. "You went too far _by accident?_"

A chopstick sails with deadly accuracy towards the pervy Sage, who catches it deftly and snaps the thing in two by reflex, only to toss the pieces to his student with a sheepish grin. "Probably not, huh," he amends himself, chuckling half-heartedly. "You said she clobbered you before you could untie yourself from that chair."

"Not just me. Five men in the front row."

"Oh ho! Feisty as always," the older man laughs. Inside, Jiraiya is cringing (his cute student, same brilliance, same good looks, same luck with women as his sensei). "Why those five?"

"No idea." Minato would really, really like to stop talking about this. He rearranges the peas on his rice with a lone chopstick. "Said they were looking at her wrong. In the end, Kushina gave the slave handlers a shock by beating up customers. Those thugs wanted to kick her out to town. We were lucky the rest of this ad-hoc mission happened at all."

Jiraiya smiles in a fatherly fashion. The Sandaime had told him earlier the full briefing report. It was just like his favorite student to send out kage bunshin to scout the area and follow the traffickers when they'd packed up from the bar, despite Minato and Kushina being nearly kicked out for her post-show "performance". Thanks to that, they'd found the location of the trafficking ring and broken it up with no casualties among the enslaved women or children.

"Well, I guess this means I'm not taking you to a brothel for your twentieth birthday."

"I'm not stepping into one of those things," Minato agrees.

In an effort to lighten the mood, Jiraiya waves a finger at Minato's carton of food. "Hey there, kid, don't go avoiding the carrots on your plate. Seriously, of all the bad habits you _don't_ have, this one stuck with you all these years, Minato!" to which the blonde shoots him a look that says, _you broke my utensil_. Chuckling ruefully, Jiraiya scratches the back of his neck to buy time, but the itch to _know_ what's going on with Kushina and his student is insatiable.

"So…" he starts innocently. "I'm thinking of writing a book, you know, based on shinobi. I can base the main character on my own experiences, but I think it'd be good to get a female perspective for the heroine. Do you think you could ask Kushina-chan if she's up for the job? She's your, ahem, _friend_."

His student looks somewhat traumatized.

"Sensei, it's not one of those pieces of literature you wrote on our training mission is it? They're a bit… Kushina would…" just the mention of her name makes his eyebrows knit together. "Just _don't._"

"It's not one of _those_!" Jiraiya defends hastily (not that there's anything wrong with those; he's thinking about one day publishing a series). "You'll enjoy reading this one when it's done, I promise!" Not to be deterred, the Sage adds, "And you and Kushina-chan have been through thick and thin. Surely she wouldn't mind doing you a favor—"

"We're not exactly on speaking terms at the moment."

"Oh, right." _Bingo. Back on track. _"So, is my favorite student going to do anything about it?"

Minato says nothing. He's found a fork rummaging through the plastic bag, and is chewing thoughtfully on a neglected piece of carrot.

"You could… invite her to a nice meal to make up," Jiraiya offers helpfully. "You know, talk it out."

_Make some progress._

"I don't think she wants to see me right now." Another carrot.

"Well, what about a movie? She doesn't need to look at _you_, just look at the screen."

"Maybe." Despite nursing a slightly roughed-up ego, a strange, determined light enters Minato's eyes. Actually, it's not a strange look at all. The kid gets it all the time when he's developing new jutsu, or demolishing a host of enemy nin, or just when he's about to deliver a finishing blow at his sensei during their practice sessions and the Great Jiraiya for a second actually wants to _run the f'ck_ _away_.

Oh shit, Jiraiya thinks. So it's _not_ just a puppy crush phase he's helping Minato get through. Tsunade-hime might actually win their bet, after all_. _

* * *

**We have a new amazingly good-looking icon image (disclaim disclaim disclaim). 'Tis beauteous. Please give _RememberMe-soon_ some love, for putting it together.  
**

**Also, holler if you don't like cooked carrots.  
**


	26. Mission 26

**_Intermission 26_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Running into Kushina is a little like playing a fine, intricate game of shogi. Its all strategy and careful, elaborate positioning of pieces.

Minato fixes the days of weeks and the people he hangs out with so that he might run into her during training hours or during mission briefings. It's harder than expected—the village is big enough for the both of them, in theory, even though Kushina isn't the type to share comfortably with anybody.

He devotes himself to training along the way—with Jiraiya, Kakashi, and, if she'll let him in between hospital shifts, Rin. Despite the war being over, both she and Kakashi are always busy nowadays running to and fro on their own assignments. Konoha's tenuous peacetime is upheld by a constant foreshadowing of battle as the Hokage signs towering sheaves of treaties with two assistants (now prodigiously good at mass-producing the Sandaime's signature).

Among the upper ranks of shinobi, there's talk of promoting a new round of jounin. An official jounin exam hasn't been instated in a while; Minato himself was promoted impromptu and astonishingly fast after his chunnin promotion more as a measure of his usefulness as a living war legend than for his passing any formal procedure.

For her own sake, Minato hopes Kushina is not one of the nominees for jounin. Leading her own team, she'll have more excuses for sacrifices, for bearing burdens. Kushina is not the type to put the success of the entire mission above all else, nor the type to give her own life as captain its due weight.

* * *

Yes, yes, she _knows_ she is too old to hide and wait for someone else to seek. Embarrassingly, though, Kushina finds herself on the worst end of awesome as she ducks behind a fruit stand when she spots a familiar blonde crop of hair a couple of yards ahead on the street. _Veer away, veer away_… she turns the corner hastily only to find herself smack dab in front of the Uchiha compound, where one stern-looking Uchiha Fugaku is looking on, and disapprovingly too (but when did he ever look anything _but_?).

"Hi. Bye." She tries to slink away. It fails as Fugaku catches her arm in a death-grip, and she has to face him, but not before matching his stone-face with her own grim scowl.

"Nice to see you, Kushina-san." He lets go of her arm, and takes a step back.

"Thanks, you too." She flashes him a cheeky smile. "I'm kind of in a rush, so I'll see you around, yeah?" Slink tactic ver. 2. _Let's go_.

The door to the Uchiha compound swings open just as the redhead makes a beeline for the road. Kushina expects to see an old raven-haired fart coming out for a stroll through the city, but it's her friend Mikoto, looking peaceful and radiant and… domestic. There's flour covering the simple white apron she had on, and she smiles when she sees Kushina, who in turn glances over to watch Fugaku's stone-face soften considerably as he looks on at his betrothed.

"Kushina! Come in, I was just making sweet cakes. You like them, right?"

Sweet cakes. It's not salt ramen, but still seriously delicious, like anything else that Mikoto put her hand to. And besides, what better way to perk up a morning of training alone than to have quality time with friends she missed? Like any sensible person, Kushina accepts the invitation.

Mikoto eye-smiles, before announcing the catch. "You have to help me make more, though. Fugaku is expecting guests today."


	27. Mission 27

**_Intermission 27_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Kushina is no master of the cooking arts, but she admires them immensely and puts in the practice when she can (mostly in a certain blonde boy's kitchen). As her mother used to say, all good eaters can become good cooks—all it takes is practice. And Kushina is a _very_ good eater.

"So, what have you been up to? I don't suppose you're keeping Fugaku's house for him _already_." Under her breath, Kushina adds "What a slave driver."

Mikoto catches the words, but merely gets a soft look in her eyes. "Let's see, well, since you last went on that mission, not much has happened. I've not been taking as many missions ever since Fugaku got assigned to lead the police unit. I'm supposed to be a wife in training for the head of the house, so..." The Uchiha heiress chuckles at her friend's aghast look. "No one's forcing me, Kushina. It's tradition."

"Yeah, well, not all traditions are good." Kushina stops pounding on the mochi dough, lost in her own thoughts, as Mikoto hums quietly in agreement. "Some traditions hurt people, so much they can't even tell anyone." In her mind's eye, Kushina can see her family members, distraught at her departure from Ushiogakure to come to Konoha. To sacrifice heart and home for an age-old alliance. To become Konoha's jink—

_Beep. Beep._

"Second batch is done," Mikoto announces. In a fluid movement reminiscent of her otherworldly grace on the battlefield, the pale raven-haired kunoichi moves to the golden-brown cakes and deftly flips the skillet over onto a clean plate. The steaming sweet cakes smell absolutely divine from where Kushina is standing, and the redhead takes a long inhale.

"Aaalright!" Kushina cheers, putting aside her gloom. "Can we eat them now?"

"Not yet. One more batch, and then we bring them to the guests." Seeing the other's crestfallen face, Mikoto winks conspicuously at her friend. "No one will know if you steal one, though. We're ninja, after all."

* * *

The Uchiha compound is a "twisty, wind-y maze of fun", to quote. On good days, Kushina as a genin used to like making a game of singing offensive songs to all the raven-haired, somber-faced men and women that walked about the premises. On her bad days, the girl would make Kushina-shaped holes in some of the hedges surrounding the individual housing units. This naturally got both her and, even more so, her quietly brilliant friend from the Academy named Uchiha Mikoto into quite some trouble. The Yellow Flash smiles at the memory.

"What are you thinking of?" Fugaku asks.

Minato catches himself. "Ah—nothing. About the leasing request, you're okay with the back forest area, right?"

"Yes." Two years Minato's senior (though they were made chunnin the same year), Fugaku is being groomed comfortably into the role of Uchiha clan head. Like his predecessors, perhaps, he doesn't really like to business outside. Business like the Uchiha private lands becoming Konoha public property are better discussed over senbei crackers and tea.

"I expect that Hokage-sama is piling on the work recently," the dark-eyed man comments mildly.

"Yeah. He's been getting a lot of treaties signed, and has been shoving some other routine paperwork onto me," Minato admits. "Property rental isn't exactly his cup of tea."

The Uchiha looks a bit surprised, if the half-millimeter rise of his eyebrow is any indication. A tinge of envy clouds the purity of a conversation between long-time friendly acquaintances. "Do you know why he picked you?" the heir blurts. Immediately catching himself, he amends, sincere, "Not that you're not more than competent… Ah, that was rude of me. I apologize."

Minato grins, slightly embarrassed, though eager to put the other man at ease. "Hey, you don't need to be formal with me. I don't know why, either," he confesses. "Sandaime-sama probably thinks that speed in battle translates to speed in filing forms".

Fugaku leads Minato through the wooden doors of his and Mikoto's house, toward an empty room used primarily for receiving guests. The tatami mats and elegant ikebana lining the wooden shelves are as traditional as they come, though the Uchiha had the rest of the house remodeled in an effort to modernize.

"Just sign here," Minato taps the spot on the scroll as the two men settle into traditional kneeling positions on opposite sides of the low-rise table. "And I'll leave these print out copies of the legal regulations with you to look at. The jounin exam will probably take no more than three days, but the Hokage wants to lease the property for a week, so we can put up preparations."

After Fugaku signs neatly as the incoming head of the Uchiha clan, Minato moves from his slightly painful sitting position, ready to leave. The Uchiha heir moves to stop him.

"Please, stay. Mikoto is coming with refreshments."

"Oh." Minato sits back down (cross-leggedly this time), nodding politely in an instinctual response to Fugaku's formality. "How's she doing, by the way?" Then, dropping the uncomfortable stiffness, the blonde pokes good-humoredly at his stern compatriot. "Picked a wedding date yet, Fugaku?"

Fugaku's ears flush imperceptibly at the topic of his impending nuptials. "That's for the Uchiha elders to decide," and, stammering "S-since Mikoto and I spend so much time together at their bidding, it's almost like we are already wed."

Minato nods, very happy for a tongue-tied Fugaku as his brain starts making comparisons to his and Kushina's situation.

"How are you and Kushina-san?" Fugaku turns the tables.

_Think_ of the devil…

"She's good, I suppose," Minato hesitates. "I actually haven't seen her recently."

Fugaku raises an eyebrow—the half millimeter usual. "Well, you're in luck. Here she comes with tea."


	28. Mission 28

**_Intermission 28_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

She doesn't need some fancy eye jutsu.

Even without, Uzumaki Kushina has always held her ground in staring contests. There's a reason why the resident Hyuga and Uchiha students in the Academy hated her so much—they're secretly a great deal _terrified_ of her prowess. Whenever the Uchiha and Hyuga staring match commenced in class, most of the other kids backed off and let the old houses settle the superiority of the Byakugan or Sharingan.

Kushina always butted in, gave 'em the good ol' Uzumaki stare-down (so close that, one more millimeter, and she would've kissed them), and won.

"Fucking terrifying," Hyuga Hizashi informed everyone. Uchiha Tenki would have protested, but he just couldn't stop blinking afterward.

* * *

Blue locks on grey.

Embarrassingly enough, Kushina breaks eye contact first.

Somehow, she can't look at him, with his important-looking scrolls, ridiculous errand boy (standard issue) sling bag, and slightly mussed golden mop of hair. Most of all, she can't stand his wide misty-eyed stare, as Minato rakes (she hasn't understood the word until their crazy misadventure with strip bars) his eyes over her form, his face flushing a faint pink, though the boy does not look away. The _nerve_.

Kushina whips around to turn back, her tied red hair nearly swinging into the Uchiha heiress.

"I should go," the redhead mumbles quickly, free hand already yanking at the frilly apron Mikoto oh-so-casually gave her to wear earlier (great-Grandma Uchiha heirloom _her ass_). Her cheeks are burning, and she's overtly aware of the three cakes she stole gleefully a few minutes ago, and the bits of flour and oil on her face as she faces a suspiciously calm Mikoto.

Poker-faced, Mikoto motions to tea tray in Kushina's hand discreetly, as both seated men in the room look on the scene with expert ninja's feigned disinterest. Kushina tries to express in facial movements something between panic and disgruntlement to her friend… but she's already lost this one.

Fine. Just… _fine_.

Kushina whirls back around, strides efficiently to two waiting, unceremoniously sets down two teacups, and (refusing to sit between Tweedle-Dee and Dum) proceeds to pour boiling water from a good three feet above the low table top, as if decantering a boiling rivulet of alcohol.

* * *

"Ah." Minato lets out a small sound when splashed, but receives a hawk-like look of death from above. A burning splash of water similarly lands on Fugaku's cheek, who blinks, rapidly, but does an impressive impression of a stone statue in front of his wife-to-be.

"So good of you to come, Minato-kun," Mikoto says smoothly, wedging the platter of cakes in the (fairly electric) air space between Kushina and Minato as if it were a peace treaty. "Here are some snacks, prepared by Kushina and myself. I hope you like sweet cakes."

Fugaku hands him one, and Minato registers faintly that he's never had baked goods by Kushina. "…Thank you," the blonde says, swallowing a bite to go play with the nervous butterflies in the pit of his stomach. They're surprisingly _good_, and though a rational part of him reasoned this is Mikoto's influence, the sentimental part of him hopes for Kushina's hand in making something so delicately sweet and moist.

Kushina interjects the warm fuzzy moment of communal eating. "I should go. I, um, have prepare training seals for the Academy kids." She defies Mikoto's small frown, and Fugaku's _look_. "Community service calls."

Minato stands with Yellow-Flash-speed. "Me too. I should get these back to the Hokage." He motions to the scrolls in his bag.

Fugaku nods jerkily, and Mikoto looks from guest to guest with mild concern.

"The cake was really good, honest" Minato commends the hostess, and invites the couple to come drop by his place anytime, though there's not much to eat, etc. etc. After the short span of time this polite exchange takes, Minato turns to his side to find Kushina gone, no doubt slipped out as silent as a Nara shadow jutsu.

Right. Of_ course_ Kushina is the master of stealth as soon as she puts her mind to running away from him for good. Despite several bingo book rumors claiming otherwise, the Yellow Flash is still human—a deep sense of embarrassment and frustration echoes through him. _Maybe this isn't worth it. Maybe it would be better for them to stay as—_

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Fugaku's voice rings with some sort of head-of-clan authority.

Still upset, Minato has half a mind to remind Fugaku oh-very-gently that his own "superior" progress with the female sex did not count—it was arranged _for_ him—but Uchiha Mikoto speaks next. Her soft-spoken, downright creepy-authoritative advice is impossible to ignore.

"Namikaze Minato. Go catch her already."

* * *

**Suzu: I like to think Itachi inherited his intimidating look from his mother, not his father.**


	29. Mission 29

**_Intermission 29_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

"Kushina—wait!"

(The shout comes from a distance, but, in her mind, not far enough.)

Please, please not **_this_** cliché. This is almost quite as bad as the fairytale madness of nearly eight years ago, like a nightmare come to life. Whose bad side had she gotten on, to deserve a chick flick chase scene of her own? She streaks farther from the Uchiha compound, and employs creative twists and ducks through archways and restaurant kitchens. She gasps a quick "sorry" to a particularly vexed customer as she twists through the floor space of a soba restaurant, bursting through the open patio of the shop to a parallel street.

Safe at last, safe at last.

"Hey. I've been looking for you everywhere."

Kushina chokes on her own saliva. _Kami, no…_

"Get away, dattebane!" she shuts her eyes and poises to slam her fist in a sunny, blonde figure. After a moment of silence, she thinks better of it and cracks open an eye, to find herself face to face with a silver-haired squirt, masked and (she is pretty darn sure) smirking under the face cover.

Oh. Better student than teacher.

"Ah, Kakashi-kun. How're you?" Kushina manages through gasps of air. She's too relieved to be vexed; the kid is looking at her as if she were a strange species of alien he's nonetheless unimpressed with (which is fine. She thinks of him as having about as much emotion as a single-celled organism, on his good days, and as much as a stick of wood, on his bad days).

"Fine, I guess." Kakashi shrugs. "Minato-sensei wanted me to find you and tell you something."

"Oh, 'sthat so." She purses her lips nervously, looking for something to put him off the topic. "Uh, how about some soba noodles first? My treat, as the _adult_. Your salary from missions can't be that high yet, right?"

Kakashi wavers for a second, but free food seems to win him over. The two nab a table with an outdoor bench as Kushina relaxes enough to order a bowl of miso soup for the squirt, and two small dishes of soba. The younger stares at her single helping of noodles when it arrives, and asks quite frankly, "What put you off your appetite?"

"Oi oi, that's rude to a lady!" Kushina protests. The brat. He's most definitely thinking: you're not a lady, or something equally patronizing. "Because I had food earlier," she says primly.

Her masked companion looks unconvinced, but let's the subject go. "Anyhow, Minato-sensei—" Kakashi restarts.

Swallowing her pride, Kushina slides in for a quick save. "Oh yeah!" she recalls with cheery enthusiasm. "I hear you're thinking of taking more missions, possibly for a special missions unit! Congrats, kid! How does it feel?" As with any annoying little buggers, Hatake Kakashi won't be able to resist bragging, especially not since he's a jounin and she's (ulgh) not.

Kakashi blinks once. "—wanted to say sorry," he finishes.

"…"

The boy peers at her curiously, his one dark eye trained on her as his chopsticks poke at his food.

"He told me to tell you, since you keep avoiding him. Not that I care, but… Minato-sensei has been off, lately."

Still nothing.

"It's lowering the quality of training," Kakashi puts bluntly, with the bland expression he's so very good at

"I… what do you know?" Kushina finally squeaks out, feeling a flush of heat burning at her ears.

Kakashi rolls his non-Sharingan eye. "Everything."

Oh. _Oh._ How enlightening. Kushina considers asking the silver-haired brat for a facemask just like his (better yet, she'll rip the mask off his smug little face first, she thinks darkly). Her face may just burn off in embarrassment first, though.

"Look, kids aren't supposed to know about…" Kushina gesticulates with her arms in a way she hopes the kid-genius will understand (though, if he's thick like Minato always was back in the day, he won't).

"Don't worry. Not interested," the silver-haired boy lowers his head as he rolls down his face mask, and Kushina catches sight of a straight, prim nose and—_huh_. After eating the noodles with astonishing speed, Kakashi refurls his mask, and looks a slightly pink Kushina in the eye.

"Just… spend one night with sensei, okay?"

Pause. Hold.

A small, horrible sound (rather like a dying animal, really) escapes her throat.

_No!_ a particularly vocal, internal voice screams. _Yes!_ another equally vocal, inner voice cries out. Both halves of a very torn Uzumaki Kushina are officially creeped; the asexual Hatake Kakashi is offering her (strangely sexual) relationship advice, and she's actually responding with inner psyche battles, making this quite possibly the worst day ever… or, if not, well, it's certainly getting there.

"H-h-he asked you to tell me t-this?"

"Yes. If you won't go to his place, he said he'll come to you."

Woah.

"… I'll kill him first."

She would.

She _would, 'ttebane_.

(It'll be several years until Hatake Kakashi figures out the connotations behind his words—two years until a softly snickering Jiraiya secretly drops off a published volume of _Icha-Icha Paradise_ in Minato's apartment to help his blonde student out, and then another three years before an inquisitive Kakashi picks the volume up by accident and starts off on the road to a lifetime addiction.)


	30. Mission 30

_Suzu: I apologize for mush. _

_The authoress suggests you read from Mission 23 onwards to this one, in order to balance it out. Or, better yet, from the beginning. That way, you'll see the 'reflection' of chapter one, two (and others) in here. _

_Happy birthday, Minato! I just realized we share the same birthday.  
_

* * *

**_Intermission 30  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

It's laughable, really, but she takes the time to clean the room and fluff the cushions.

Kushina's apartment is sparse in that it has barely any furniture but quite a mountain of garbage in the spare guestroom, which often threatens to fall into the living room and her bedroom. Minato refuses to come by to help her clean it up after the first time he came over three years ago, and spent seven hours trying to sort out all the stuff that she _had to keep because of sentimental value _from the ordinary junk.

"I'm cleaning for myself," she says out loud to a much tidier room, as if that would suddenly make the lie less false and more true.

Since the room doesn't scoff at her (or respond with _any_ discernable answer), Kushina sighs and walks to the window, drawing the checkered curtains together against the colorful evening of the sky outside. Her stomach rumbles—in her cleaning-frenzy, she's forgotten to eat dinner.

She settles down on the single armchair in her living room and decides to flip through a ninja tools catalogue, even though she's stocked for another three months, at least. The glossy pages are slow-going, especially when the pictures of standard kunai start dance before her eyes and look mysteriously three-pronged. She shuts the thick magazine with an audible thump.

It's a slow descent into jittery madness from then on. The small television is flicked on and off. Kushina waters all of her scrawny plants. She even considers doing the laundry (nevermind she did it yesterday). Finally, Kushina resolves to spend the night in a cocoon of blankets, snuggly wrapped up and secure from blonde-haired jounin.

She turns to her side. And she wonders.

Namikaze Minato.

It's a disease. It's a fucking _disease_, she's been trying to tell herself for _years_, but at this point she knows she's too old to keep up this game of pretend anymore.

He plagues her daily with his sunny smiles and warm laughter echoing in her ears. Sometimes, his chuckles end with him teasing her by calling her "'Shina-chan" or "Red" or other embarrassing fluff like that, but it's endearing, and her heart soars when he turns his clear blue gaze toward her.

_And the soft kisses, a voice taunts. _

_Both stolen, another voice amends. One from him, by me. One from me, by him._

She needs to accept the reality that has overtaken years of what she thought was a schoolgirl crush. Kushina feels slightly relieved, but more-so troubled. Dreams will never end with her and Namikaze kissing or pulling other weird stunts on each other—reality has already settled that quite nicely. She's not stupid, but she had been, in the past. Vulnerabilities are a part of life. Everyone has weaknesses, and everyone develops new weaknesses. Just because Minato may fancy her now (does he really, she wonders?) doesn't mean she has to run away from one of her best friends forever. But she also knows, plain and simple, that any progress—kami-sama forbid, a relationship—is dependent on the kyuubi inside of her. It's not for her to decide whom she can share her life with (indeed, she doesn't want a half-fulfilling relationship in which the other would not know her, of _every_ _part of her_).

A stiff knock echoes across the apartment, eerily loud against the quietness of her thoughts.

"I'm not coming," she announces through the sheets, to no one in particular.

The intruder is insistent. The knocking does not relent. Cursing her fate, Kushina pads silently across the swept floor, barefoot, pulling her bedding behind her like a wedding train, and then finally leaving her swath of blankets pooled in the middle of the living room.

Closer, closer.

She settles into a hunched form. The wood of the front door to her apartment is cool and firm against her back, and she trembles slightly as she feels the rhythmic knocking course through her, as if each vibration against the wood were a pounding echo of the knock against her heart.

The knocking stops, hesitating for a beat, and, in her mind's eye, Kushina can see the small frown marring a handsome face at the other side of the door. She burns, hot, with shame, as she remembers Kakashi's words.

_"Just spend one night with Sensei." _

As if.

Nothing is as simple as that. _That_ would be kunoichi work… just like _work_. Kushina cannot do that to a dear friend, possibly the dearest of them all. That's why the kiss onstage had hurt. A lot. And his lie… his deception had hurt even more. The burning feeling in her cheeks intensifies, as she stares at her rough, calloused hands and watches the large fat droplets splatter toward her palms. Hot salt water drips down her cheeks.

_"Go away!"_ She hears her own voice shouting. It's an angry sound, horrible and grating.

Her arms wrap around her knees as she shifts into a tighter ball against the door. How could Minato march up to her door like that? Maybe he should just announce to the world that he has his eye on the village sore thumb, not to mention refugee, not to mention (privately, she thinks) a monster. He could do better. He could probably date a Uchiha—a _Hyuga_—if he really wanted. The oldest, richest families in the village welcome the Yellow Flash as one of the most formidable in a decade, no… possibly a century.

It's not a relationship she fears. It's not the one night. If only it were _that fucking simple_. It's—

She struggles for the word, tasting it on the tip of her tongue, but no, that was a salty tear instead.

The pounding in her chest stops. Resumes. She finds it.

Ah.

Commitment.

She's never been committed to anything but a nine-tailed fox demon—and that particular commitment would be 'til death do them part. There's room for nothing more inside her. _Fill the vessel with love,_ Mito's voice echoes inside her head.

"He's my friend. I love him. He's my best friend," Kushina pronounces, giving definition to each word, defiant against any opposition. She hugs herself tighter, and imagines that she feels a wind at her back, and the breeze feels like Uzumaki, no, _Senju_ Mito's last words. Kushina closes her eyes, at peace with this compromise. This is good enough, right… Lady Mito?

"It's not enough," says a decidedly male voice.

The peace comes crashing down. Kushina's eyelids fly open and sees the face to match the voice, and her insides turn topsy-turvy. He's on the same side of the door as her, _somehow_, and the space between him and the back of the door is too small to contain the loud pounding in her ears.

Minato's burning stare is arresting. Silently, he drops to a knee, and Kushina notices the bandage wrapped around the limb. A surge of worry washes through her, even as she tries, weakly, to suppress the feeling.

"What...?" Her voice comes out weak. She hates that.

"I said," Minato repeats clearly, firmly,

"It's not enough. Being friends."


	31. Mission 31

_Suzu: Kushina is learning a new fact (or two) every intermission. Also, in reality, it's not easy transitioning from friends to something more. It takes time, and little realizations in between.  
_

* * *

**_Intermission 31  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Piercing—his tone is like a thousand needles to her bloodstream, and it's like her blood is on fire. Kushina is frozen in place against the door frame, staring down the Yellow Flash of the battlefield.

She regains her footing (she's a ninja, too. She will not be bested in battles) and is about to shout something in indignation (like: how the hell did you get in, 'ttebane), but Minato beats her to the punch by holding out a hand to stay her.

His steely mask drops, and the soft, polite boy she's grown up with returns. All of a sudden, he has apology written all over his face.

"Wait—I'm sorry. Please, wait. You didn't earlier today, so I think you owe me, oh, let's say thirty seconds?"

There it is—that small, goofy grin.

He's pleading with her. The Yellow Flash is telling someone else to wait for him. It's so ironically pathetic that Kushina cannot find the energy to laugh. Minato pushes his cornsilk bangs from his eyes, still grinning crookedly, guiltily, in a way that reminds Kushina of all the afternoons sparring where he accidentally tripped on her kunai or other intensely uncharacteristic slip-ups that the boy genius put up in pretense, for her benefit. He's a good guy, the voice inside taunts. _He's too good for you._

"Kakashi told me he met with you. I'm so glad you agreed," he smiles. "This is an activity we can only do at night."

For one reason or another, she remains obediently mute. It's shock, probably.

"A-ah, and, I… missed you," Minato adds in a soft voice, almost a whisper. Kushina marvels as light pink blooms on Minato's cheeks, but that must be from the cold outside the door. "Um, your door was unlocked," Minato continues, explaining in a rush. "And… I'm sorry for barging in. I—I thought you were talking to me."

Kushina's voice continues to fail her. She nods stiffly instead.

"Here."

Minato pushes something into the palm of her hand (embarrassingly, she flinches at the contact). The weight of it is reassuring as the oblong object fits snugly in her fist.

She blinks down at it owlishly.

"What is this?"

"It's a telescope," he explains. "I bought it for you on my mission two months ago, but I've always forgotten to give it to you until now."

"…This is for me?" Kushina repeats numbly.

A small part of her wants to berate herself for playing the part, for playing the script of the damsel wooed back into good graces. Ah, waitwaitwait, _hold_ on. _Screw_ the script. She's not ashamed, 'ttebane. _'Kushina, get over yourself,'_ she thinks fiercely. There's more important things than to be wary of her fast-beating heart.

"Thank you," Kushina murmurs, and tries to smile graciously, and succeeds only in giving him a pinched expression. "I don't really know what this is, though…"

Minato stare is fixed on her (he's bright as the sun) and his eyes dance as he rises and offers her a hand up from the doorframe. "You've always said you didn't 'need' fancy eye jutsu, but you'd still kill to be able to see as far as the Byakugan can. This can help you."

Kushina marvels again at the small, compact cylinder in her hand. It feels heavy, and she sees that it's made of wood and metal, with two clear glass pieces on either end.

"Can it _really_?"

Minato laughs at her childlike astonishment. He takes her hand in his larger one and pulls her to the window.

She lets him.

The curtains are brushed aside, and the windowpanes thrust open as a cool night breeze flows in. With it, Kushina makes out the crisp scent of Konoha winter, heralding a new year soon to come. A midnight blue sky, so clear it looks painted, stretches out above the various rooftops and Hokage monument.

Minato steps aside to allow her room to look out the window. He takes her right hand, which is still clutching his gift.

"I'll show you how to use it."

Slightly nervous, Kushina fumbles enthusiastically with the mechanisms on the telescope, surprise and excitement lighting up her eyes as Minato demonstrates how to stretch out the contraption, to make it three times in length, and then shows her how to stare through one end toward the inky night sky. She mimics his movements, leaning against the windowsill and propping the telescope up to her eye.

"I don't see anything."

"Don't squint your eye so hard if you're going to look through it."

"Oh." She relaxes. "Hey! The moon is so big!"

Minato's hands ghost over her own and wrap gently around her fingers.

"Right, I'll move you to this direction next. Now, what do you see?"

Kushina swallows. Minato's hands are warm, and his whole body is startlingly close, the closest since their escapade at the late night show bar. Against the night breeze, his body heat feels warm and comforting through their thin clothes. Shaking herself to attention, she re-angles the telescope to the spot Minato pointed out.

"Ah. _Ah!_"

Fireworks. Only not.

Not like those from months ago, on that night. Not like that at all.

Bright specks of light streak across the dark sky. Blindingly bright through the telescope, the star shower looks like fat ribbons of milky silver unfurling and fading out.

"Minato! Look!" Realizing only she has the telescope, she turns to him guiltily. "Hey, y-you look too! Here."

She thrusts the telescope into his hands, turning to look at the sky with her naked eyes. It's still _marvelous_. Without the telescope, she can still see the small pinpricks streaking through the dark, but with Minato's new gift, it's almost like she's dancing with the stars, each one like a shimmery nighttime rainbow.

Minato laughs at her excitement, looking relieved. "I'm glad you like it. It had to be tonight, you know. There supposedly would be a meteor shower tonight, so I told Kakashi to ask if you wanted to watch it with me."

Kushina nods absently, still mesmerized by the show in the sky. "How did you know it would be tonight?"

"I've been doing some training with Jiraiya-sensei's frog sage friends. They've been reading the stars for ages, and told me about this one coming up."

"Huh." She looks at his profile through her peripheral vision. Minato's face is softly illuminated by the light of the moon and stars. Shadows from the curtain and dark apartment play on his features. He's as startling handsome as that night years ago… and that other night, years before then.

Kushina's gaze snaps back, and a thousand accusations crowd out her pleasure at seeing Minato's "gift". A hand unconsciously goes to her belly, where a seal marks the purpose of her being. She was a burden to Konoha, to him… still is, still _could be_. He really, _really _should leave, or else she wouldn't be able to leave him alone, no matter how hard she tries.

He's too close.

Why did she let him in to her life, in the first place?

In her haste, Kushina nearly knocks into him as she pivots away from the window, walking briskly to the kitchen, and hovering aimlessly around the table before wandering back into the living room. She turns on the small reading lamp by the armchair. The warm glow of the light only extends a few feet around the middle of the room, and she feels a bit better—knowing it's no longer just her and him, girl and boy, in the alluring swirl of darkness and moonlight.

Kushina looks again to the window, and Minato's back is turned away from her. He's still looking out into the night sky, although he's put the telescope down. The meteor show has long since died down.

"Why are you here, Namikaze?"

(She can't call him Minato. Not right now.)

"To say sorry." He doesn't move, doesn't turn to face her.

"For—?"

There's a pause before his response.

"… Whatever it is you're mad at me for."

_Stalemate._

"I'm not mad. I'm just worried for you," she scoffs, ignoring the burn in her chest. "You know, you can't go around hanging out with me so much anymore. Not unless you want everyone to get the wrong idea about us."

(Great. Just great. Now she's sunk to a new low of lecturing him.)

Minato turns around slowly, and the moonlight halos his form, so that Kushina can't see his expression clearly. He's beyond the reach of her small reading light.

"Do you want them to get the wrong idea?" he says lightly.

"What do you…" Kushina mutters, flushing. "I—we're friends."

Minato crosses the room slowly, in measured steps, as if he's careful to not ward her off, like a deer. Finally, he enters the circle of warm orange illuminated by the single light in the room. The shadow and light sculpt his form, throwing every feature into sharp relief.

"Are we?"

Kushina shifts uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at him. "Eh…"

"Are we just friends?" he poses the question again, his voice a low timbre. Kushina shoots him a furtive glance, only to be caught in his lingering stare.

_Ah._

Minato looks at her as if he's never seen a _woman_ before, as if, even if she is actually just awkward curves and tomato hair, all he sees are beautiful, soft features and silken strands of fine-spun fire.

"I don't know," she breathes at last. A crimson curtain of hair falls into her hesitant eyes. "Sometimes I just feel like we're…"

"Soulmates," he finishes. "I know."

.

.

.

She's breathless.

He probably stole that right out of his Sensei's crap-you-feed-to-women manual. Or he picked the term up from some bad romance novel Rin lent him. Yeah, yeah, okay... but it doesn't stop the insistent drumming in her ears.

And then she catches it. A small, teasing glint in his eye, too mischievous for the sissy-Minato she's prejudiced for years, but perfect on her best friend. And then Kushina realizes (_oh_), years of them spending time together weren't a waste, after all.

"Hard to believe," Kushina quips back dryly. "I don't exactly love you with the burning desperation of a thousand suns."

.

.

.

He doesn't so much as pause after her retort.

"I like you," Minato says resolutely, _seriously_ this time.

And as Kushina soaks in the honest words, he adds.

"Please say you like me, too."


	32. Mission 32

**_Intermission 32  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Rumors spread fast, because not one old-lady-gossip in Konoha isn't at least _a little bit_ interested in what became of the odd redheaded immigrant and the nice, polite boy who used to rat out his sensei when the (excuse any disrespect) _way-wardly inclined_ Jiraiya-sama peeked on women in the hot springs.

The two young people make an interesting pair, to be sure. However, the discussion dies down in a day or so, because, as they say, old news is old news.

Those two have been in cahoots, so to say, for so long that the rest of the village doesn't bat a metaphorical eyelash when Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato experience a _mild shift_ in their relationship.

It's not fair to say they're upgrading from friends to anything vastly more intimate (Jiraiya argues, since he's not technically lost the bet yet), but word has it that someone agreed to at least enter a trial period before giving a final answer (verdict, says Tsunade flippantly) to a request to start dating officially, though others contest that only manly tears were shed on either side (Fugaku figures this from Mikoto's demure hints of Kushina's hasty visit at 5 am in the morning). And no one but the Sandaime still reads the village dating column to glean truth (gossip, really. Orochimaru, on the other hand, reads the marriage section, to make a personal record of what genes and kekkai genkai would be passed on in the village). Thought, in the end, there's no column confirming "it's complicated" statuses.

And yes, it's _complicated_.

"But when is it not?" Jiraiya interrupts Minato's thoughts loudly, and bonks his clueless student on the head, in vain hopes of knocking some knowledge (or discretion) of women into him. He then helps himself to some of the leftovers in Minato's fridge.

"She _cried,_" Minato glares, eyes electric blue and flashing dangerously.

"In happiness, yeah?"

"_I don't know!_" the young man snaps. "She cried after I told her I liked her. _Who does that?!_"

And because Minato is _actually_ still a wee, ignorant boy of eighteen, Jiraiya takes it upon himself to pat the blonde's back awkwardly while assuring him that (a) he's well within social margins of being 'handsome and smart' and (b) hey, Uzumaki Kushina might have been on her time of the month etc. etc.

"And she didn't say she DOESN'T like you." Jiraiya wriggles his eyebrow, for aesthetic effect.

"I've never seen her cry before. I forced her to consider me," Minato says, almost miserably, ignoring his sensei and running a hand through his (somewhat sparser) hair. "I suck."

"Yes, you suck now, but you won't suck by the time I'm done with you." Jiraiya puts on his best instructor face. "Kid, we're going training."

"Imph nmt interephesatedt," Minato mumbles out of the cocoon of his arms, head on the table.

"Not _interested_?" The white-haired man looks aghast. "You can't be '_not interested_'. We're going to the finest hot spring in Fire Country."

"I'm not interested in peeping games. And you really should stop before Tsunade-sama kills you," Minato says more coherently for his sensei's benefit.

Jiraiya only guffaws, dismissing the notion of 'Tsunade-hime ever doing such a thing', before explaining.

"No, no… The Hokage himself endorses this trip. We're going and Kushina-chan's coming with us."

Minato balks.

"What? Why?"

The Toad Sage has Minato's full attention, now. The concentration of the blonde's glare would be disconcerting for any man of lesser caliber, but the white-haired man shakes it off and carries on.

"Geez, Kid, can't the Great Jiraiya train a chunnin before her jounin exam? You can't hog me all to yourself, you know," The older man says sternly, with not just a hint of smugness.

"Jounin exam... Kushina." Minato pauses to take in Jiraiya's leaked information, before deflating again.

"She won't come." _'Cause I'm going.'_

Jiraiya tsks-tsks at the boneless pile of crushed masculine confidence that used to be Konoha's Yellow Flash.

Clearly, there is _much_ to teach.

"She will_," _The Toad Sage assures his student. "Didn't I already say it? This training trip is my special A-ranked private mission, from the Hokage himself." He winks.

Minato swallows heavily, because he doesn't know if this is a good or bad thing.


	33. Mission 33

_Suzu: I plan on getting them together by Valentine's. So, dear readers, I'll need your support! (Insert Dora theme.)  
_

* * *

**_Intermission 33  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

It's a beautiful bathhouse. Jiraiya leads Minato and a skittish-feeling Kushina to the brightly lit entrance of a large established modeled after a Daimyo's castle. Red paper lanterns hang at every window, and cling to the trellises. A lush garden surrounds the compound, while stalks of bamboo naturally frame the hot springs from public view. Steam wafts out of several nook holes, smelling of hot spring water and expensive rubbing salts.

All throughout check in and dinner, Kushina can't put her finger on whether or not Minato's smiling more warmly at her than usual, whether the tweak of his lips' are forced or, kami forbid, he's just that thick-skinned.

"Here, your towel."

Kushina looks up.

Her brain finds itself instantly torn between ogling the open expanse of very bare (very _finely_ _sculp_—damn, no, focus, focus) male torso in front of her, and trying to muster the hand-eye coordination to reach for the towel Minato offers.

What is this? What the hell is this relationship period called? Minato and Kushina, at a hot spring. Minato and Kushina, relaxing together like good chums. Minato and Kushina, not having weird thoughts while the other is in a flimsy bathhouse-provided yukata.

This is what she asked for, right? It's gone back to the camaraderie of before, back to the comfortable level of intimacy Kushina wants. Only, she can't enjoy _this_ (whatever this is) anymore.

The red-haired kunoichi is still frustrated as hell while walking the length of the hallway toward the female bathing quarters. She considers going back to their rooms, but Jiraiya has gone out to the main market square tonight to do some recon, so this may be the only chance she would get to bathe in peace.

_'May as well enjoy tonight. The training starts tomorrow.' _Certainly, Kushina would be lying if she said she's not the least bit thrilled at training with one of the Sannin. If he made Minato that strong…

An image of a shirtless chest flashes in her mind.

_'Ack.'  
_

Shake it off, Kushina, shake it off.

* * *

She really wishes his stare weren't so, well, _leering_.

"So... How'd you enjoy last night?"

"Fine."

"Anything… exciting happen while I was gone?"

("Sensei!" a strangled sound from behind.)

"Nope. Not really."

"Hmm, okay." (The white-haired man throws a look of deep disappointment over his shoulder.) "Well, anyhow, Kushina, I got you a present."

"Oh," she blinks. "Thanks. You didn't have… to… ah. **_HEY._**"

"A tasteful two-piece," Jiraiya explains helpfully, misreading two very alarmed expressions. "I thought you'd be shy in bathing together with me 'n Minato at the private spring we reserved for the rest of the weekend, so I took care of preparations. You like it?"

"I—I…"

"Aww, no need to thank me. A hug will do."

(Minato succumbs to a nosebleed. Jiraiya's nose succumbs to Kushina's fist.)


	34. Mission 34

**_Intermission 34  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

To: Hokage Tower

.

Dear Ol' Geezer—I mean Sarutobi-sensei,

Day 1 was unsuccessful. I prepared well for the mission by purchasing a costume for the girl that would allow me to the chance to examine the fuin seal, but it seems Uzumaki Kushina's sense of fashion does not mesh with mine.

I did not even get the chance to tell her that an exposed midriff is necessary for training, before she punched me. Even my delivery frog laughed at me when he saw the bruise.

Blaming you,

J.

P.S. Since nothing was accomplished tonight, I may have to extend the reservation for the private spring. You'll enlarge our mission budget, yeah?


	35. Mission 35

_Suzu: yes, the story has a plot, somehow. jounin exam foreshadowing yo.  
_

* * *

**_Intermission 35  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Kushina loves winter, loves the brisk feeling of cold nipping at her nose, loves the smell of hot chestnuts roasted by the street vendors they passed today and the pure contrast of hot steam and clean wintry air.

As for Minato, he doesn't care for the cold (frankly, he's more of a springtime sort of guy. Spring is sensibly warm, with mild climate and plentiful rainfall to support agriculture and therefore country populations. He's always been practical that way). However, the blonde jounin cannot help the feeling of butterflies in his core, watching the way Kushina's red hair is striking against the white world of snow, and the way her lithe form twists in the sharp winter zephyr as she insists on practicing katas outside in subzero temperature.

"Come inside," he calls to her from the window of the bathhouse inn. "I made hot soup."

Kushina looks perplexed (he's not going to pretend _that _doesn't hurt), but it's been a week and they've almost (almost) worked out this new phase of being, _coexisting_.

"Don't make me Hiraishin out there," Minato says warningly, only a tiny bit serious.

Kushina's sad grey eyes crinkle slightly, while her chapped lips flit upwards.

"Coming."

She is.

But not to where he wants her.

* * *

"Don't make him wait too long." The white-haired man stares at her, stern with a benign fatherly aura, as he downs another cup of expensive sake.

"For an answer?"

Jiraiya is silent, and Kushina marvels at the amount of tact the man possesses when he's not being a giant pervert. Somehow, the gut feeling in her stomach tells her that she could learn to trust a man like this. Kushina takes a swig from her own cup, immediately regretting it as the acrid taste fills her mouth and burns her tongue. She waits for it to subside, but the tingle on her palate remains, not altogether unpleasant.

"I understand why Minato trusts you so much." The words slip out, and she freezes in her chair.

But the older man's laugh is frank and open.

"Thanks. Coming from you, I feel like that means a lot."

Kushina doesn't respond. From most people, those words would feel like an insult. Yes, she's not the most trusting sort in Konoha, especially as an immigrant under special circumstances, but heck, that isn't a bad thing in a kunoichi. Distance, mystery, secrecy-these were potent tools on par with kunai and shuriken in a kunoichi's arsenal. Still, sometimes, she wonders if it's her own fault, and not the kyuubi's... if her own niggling sense of distrust is keeping her from fulfilling Uzumaki Mito's wishes for her well-being.

Her companion clears his throat.

Quickly checking the time to see that Minato would not be back from finding them lunch anytime soon, Jiraiya leans in to whisper, almost conspiratorially, but with a guarded, serious gaze that Kushina has never seen on the white-haired man.

"Listen. I'm actually here to help you with the seal you have on your navel. I know about the…" Jiraiya leaves the rest unspoken. He nods imperceptibly and waits for Kushina to react.

For such an 'active' girl, Jiraiya notes that she's surprisingly contained on the subject.

The Sannin watches discreetly as Kushina's eyes grow wide, and her flushed cheeks pale a half-shade.

"You know?" she whispers.

"Only Sandaime and his most trusted. That includes me."

"Is that why we came to—?"

"Good girl." Jiraiya nods approvingly. "You catch on fast. We can't do this training in broad daylight in Konoha. Not with all the politics and secrecy going on in the village, and not with the jounin exams so close. You never know when an enemy nin has been sent to spy on Konoha shinobi."

Kushina nods, the tingle in her stomach no longer having anything to do with sake as she holds her breath against the fox's stirring.

"Does Minato know?" she blurts out.

Jiraiya raises an eyebrow, and Kushina feels herself flush, instantly ashamed of her unsorted priorities.

"No," the older man responds slowly, and then chuckles, as if he's just been let in on some amusing secret. "Not unless you've told him."

"I _wouldn't!_" she counters hotly. "He'll think that… um…" the words die on her lips.

"He'll think what?" the Sannin presses. "Minato's not the worst you could do, you know. Call me biased, but the kid has this self-sacrificial, idealistic, protective streak a mile long. Student after my own heart, he is," Jiraiya concludes, sniffing melodramatically.

A small, nervous giggle escapes Kushina's mouth, before the characteristic grin blooms across her face.

"So, Pervy Sage, you gonna train me or what? Think you can make me strong enough to kick your idealistic, self-sacrificial student's butt?"

"Oh-ho! Feisty, I see. So be it, then. Let's try running across the water for starters."


	36. Mission 36

**_Intermission 36  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

"Do you still like me?"

He turns.

"Did you say something?" he calls back.

She's standing at the center of the pool of water, chakra supporting her feet, while Minato's at the opposite edge of the water, a good twelve meters away. This improved chakra control is as far as Jiraiya's help can take her in two days, given her crude fuin seal's structure, but at least now the older man's got all the information he needs to learn more and maybe work on something better for tailed beast hosts in the future. In any case, she's grateful.

By giving a certain blonde goody-goody a chance, she can give the Pervy Sage one return favor.

She sucks in her breath.

"DO YOU STILL LIKE ME?"

He's sunshine gold in the early morning light and the white steam blurs his image. And all of a sudden, the Yellow Flash is _scarlet_.

Minato turns bright red at her exclamation, before losing his chakra balance and dropping into the water with a splash, thus confirming all accounts of his feelings.

Kushina laughs, genuinely happy, as a warm chakra seems to pulsate gently from her very core.

(Fill the vessel with love.)

_'Is this what you meant, Mito-sama?'_


	37. Mission 37

**_Intermission 37  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

One time, one date, she agrees.

It turns out horribly.

It _is_ a proper date, proper in the sense that neither smelled of sweat or kunai polish, and there is abundant food and music and wine...the whole shebang.

A _proper_ date, during which an obsessive-compulsive Kushina can't stop going to the bathroom (to re-recite Mikoto's compilation of top 10 date mistakes) and a frantically-clueless Minato smells far too strongly of honeysuckle flowers (new cologne, spritzed on liberally by Jiraiya).

They decide not to speak of it again.

So when Minato is called on an urgent mission the day after to investigate something in the nation of Rouran, neither of them is especially morose over the separation, and gladly welcome the buffer period.

Before he leaves, Minato can't bring himself to set a date for after his return. After his performance on the first, and her rather severe reaction to the prospect of fine dining (the owner that kicked them out after Kushina slammed the restroom door a bit _too_ hard), he knows he can't just put someone so precious through the same ordeal a second time. A sense of clinging pride, but more so, abject desperation, tells him he'd rather be friends than awkward, failed lovers.

Kushina can't bring herself to pick up the pieces and try again, either. She's (okay, she'll admit it) scared shitless. Some things just aren't meant to be, 'ttebane. If 'dating' is this bad without him knowing about her… condition, how bad would it be down the line?

Neither remembers how to be vulnerable

And both have this weird feeling in the pit of the stomach, a gnawing worry... that this is as far as it will go.


	38. Mission 38

_Suzu: To all those who stuck by this story's couple every update, I thank you. __Happy Valentine's! __Today, we turn over a new leaf. Lurkers, celebrate with us?  
_

* * *

**_Intermission 38  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

Her chopsticks are swept aside by a deft flick of Chouza's wrist. Triumphant, the heir to the Akimichi clan claims the final piece of grilled meat.

"Hey!"

Kushina found out about the other nominees for the jounin exam shortly after the Hokage posted word that there's to be an official promotion exam for the first time since the last peacetime, long before the wars of their generation's childhood. And, because a number of jounin nominees had lurked around at the base the Hokage tower at dusk to read the bulletin's posted for some hint of the day, time, and format of the exam, it's only natural for four eighteen-year old, former classmates to get barbeque afterward, in pre-exam camaraderie.

"You're ordering another round, Chouza."

"Not cool."

"Why are you so obsessed with getting the last piece?"

Shikaku nods in agreement, too intoxicated to care about the fact that he's concurring with _Uzumaki_. "She's right. Chill out, man. Don' be so suh-hic-serious. S'bothersome."

The large Akimichi narrows his eyes as he scrutinizes the last piece of barbeque, then pops it into his mouth and chews his prize with relish, washing it down with a great gulp of sake. When he finally speaks, a darkly serious look permeates his gaze. His voice is deep, and unusually grave.

"Nothing in life is worth doing if you're not serious. But if you are serious about it, whatever small thing it is, you'll learn a lot and grow from the experience."

"Uh huh. Grow _fat_, you mean," Inoichi mutters under his breath, tongue loosened by liquid courage.

Before the jibe can get any reaction from (the suspiciously eloquent) Akimichi, the only female at the table shoots up from her seat and thumps the larger man on the back.

.

_sometimes, all it takes is a tiny push_

_the last straw on the metaphorical camel's back_

_._

_"That's it, 'ttebane!"_ the redhead's face is jubilant, while the three men are too shocked to react (well, too drunk).

Kushina riffles in her wallet for some cash, pulls out an impressively crumpled wad of money, and throws it at an increasingly alarmed Chouza.

"_Dude._" She nods her head slowly in a gesture the startled men can only interpret as one of I-am-so-darn-impressed-by-you."You. are. a. _genius_. A penny f'your wisdom, Ak'michi Chouza. Food's tota'y on me t'day, datteb'ne," she slurs with enthusiasm, wobbling a bit before descending the table top.

And with that, the Habanero storms out into the night, a whirlwind of red hair and flashing (big, silly) smile, leaving the Ino-Shika-Cho trio blinking owlishly after her.

Inoichi speaks first.

"…This isn't enough to cover her bill."

* * *

_so it goes_

.

.

.

_one breath. two._

_breathe in,_

_out._

"I've decided to love you," Uzumaki Kushina announces one morning.

It's not, I've decided to try this out, or I've decided to go steady with you.

Kushina will have _no more_ of that. It's always been this simple, in her mind. I love you, or I don't love you. Why should a relationship be any different? Why _had she been_ _so stupid_?

And because Minato is surprisingly suave at 4 am in the morning, he manages to wipe the gunk from his eye, recheck his vision of the fiery goddess before him (yes, it is Kushina, though she smells suspiciously of sake and barbeque), and finally, _finally_ lets out a joyous peal of laughter as he picks up his best friend—no_, girlfriend_—in the middle of the apartment's hallway and spins her around and around until both their sides hurt.

.

"I love you, too."

(She then throws up all over his favorite nightshirt, but it's okay because there promises to be many, many more days of this to get it right.)


	39. Mission 39

**_Intermission 39  
_**

_- a love story in bits and pieces -_

* * *

She feels almost bored at training, staring at him clutch his forehead. She's tapping her toe, _pmptmptmp_, against the dirt in a mixture of frustration and anticipation as she sees him wince a bit when he feels the swelling bump.

"Ow. You really got me there." A good-natured laugh.

Odd. Something feels… odd.

"Are you really the Yellow Flash?" Kushina asks dubiously.

"What?"

Granted, (fake?) Minato's face shows genuine bewilderment. She resists the urge to pinch his slightly flushed cheeks, since there are important matters to confirm.

"_I said_," Kushina huffs. "Are you _really_ my boyfriend?"

"Yes?" her opponent tries and fails to look serious enough in answering, and Kushina can tell that he's holding in a big grin at the word "boyfriend". Grey eyes narrow as the red-haired woman scowls at his unguarded stance.

Minato, for one, has honestly no clue what brought on _this_ phase, but will treat it as carefully and considerately as any boyfriend should. Sure, they haven't been on any dates since they've been official, but that was only two days ago, and Kushina told him she had to 'focus on training for the jounin exam before any fluffy dating crap'. Whatever is the matter now, he'll add it dutifully to his growing list of Kushina Eccentricities.

"Kushina, what's wrong?" he asks, a dreadful feeling in his stomach.

"You've gotten weaker." Seeing his confused expression return, she explains. "You weren't so easy to hit before. Not even close. Are you sure you're not a fake?"

And though Minato takes utmost care to be a gentleman, he feels a sweeping rush of relief that she doesn't hate him, that she's still the same old Kushina (maybe he's the one over-thinking this relationship), and that he can still flash a hair's breadth away from her knees before deftly sweeping her off her feet with chakra, catching his girlfriend in a low dip before she hits the ground. And that's exactly what he does. There's no time for her to even blink. Minato makes sure of that.

"Am I?" he probes, triumphant grin in place.

Kushina's face turns as red as her hair, and he's pretty sure that's smoke coming out of her ears, but all Minato can think is that she's so cute like that.

"You are, 'ttebane," she splutters.

And as final proof, she pulls him down by his hair and kisses him rather aggressively, to which, after his neurons freeze for a femtosecond, Minato reciprocates enthusiastically. All sorts of jumbled fuzziness comes to mind in the four blissful seconds… until Kushina none-too-gently crashes a lateral chop into Minato's solar plexus and simultaneously hits the pressure point along his spine that has him moaning ("Stop that! We're shinobi, not pansies!") for reasons that have nothing to do with pleasure.


	40. Mission 40

_Suzu: Hi supremely awesome readers. I'm honestly very, very excited we made it this far. Seriously, so very happy I get to write this chapter, and the ones after it. The jounin exam was originally meant to be told in a long chapter, but life is busy, and I figured breaking it up would be easier for updating speed. Hope you enjoy it!_

* * *

**Intermission 40**

_- the jounin exam -_

* * *

The forest roars to life.

Kushina feels her neighbor flinch, as gooseflesh crawls up her own arms.

The woods practically shriek in agony—some unnamed beasts thundering inside—as Kushina tips her exam kunai forward and back on the table in a spiral motion, waiting for the proctor to finish the exam briefing.

"The jounin exam will end in exactly 4300 minutes. All those failing to leave the forest will be left there for an additional twenty minutes, marking three full days in the arena, before ANBU will assist in extracting your bodies."

Extracting your bodies indeed. The female proctor makes it sound like a horror film. Actually, it's strangely comforting, to hear the blatant hints of physical harm dripping off of every sentence. It sounds like the chunnin exams all over again.

The cabin where currently all twenty five jounin exam nominees are holed in is about forty meters away from the entrance to the dense mossy thicket. According to the proctor's earlier safety notes, the underbrush during this season includes insect larvae that delight at the prospect of feasting on sweet human blood. Women especially, as female blood had a higher sugar content.

Yeah, the wilderness is sexist.

"Nothing about the forest should phase you," the proctor stresses with a tone of professional boredom, eliciting reactions ranging from smug grins and rolled eyes. Kushina remembers seeing some familiar (back then, younger) faces look like they wanted to wet their pants back when facing the Forest of Death. Go figure.

"You've all been through the chunnin exams before. What you should be worried about—" and here the woman shoots a pointed look at Shikaku, whose mouth is lolling half-open, his brain clearing dozing, "—is failing to actively seek out the sub-tasks that we will drop into the forest at intervals. There will be sufficient warning that a new task has been set, and a preliminary notification will be delivered in the form of an ANBU, bird, or insect."

A delivered message-system. That sounds fair enough. In real missions, shinobi messages are often relayed via carrier animal, or, if you're lucky enough, another fellow human who could provide something besides information, like rations or arms.

"However, the actual details of the task are written in a scroll marked with your color. As I'm sure you've noticed, your designated color is the one surrounding your kunai."

Kushina peers more closely at the handle of the kunai the proctor passed out just a second ago. It sports a red band, as opposed to standard issue blue. On the other hand, Shikaku's kunai has a green band, and several other colors are also present.

"You are to seek out the task scrolls and read them before the seal on the scroll causes it to self-destruct. Those able to complete more of these sub-tasks will gain more points."

Inoichi's hand shoots in the air. The proctor nods at him to proceed.

"It's not a cut-off test, is it? Does one need a certain number of points to pass, or can we target other people's scrolls to lower their scores?"

A few chunnin look around uneasily. Clearly, people still remember the competitive element of the chunnin exams. There was no set pass-fail system, back then. Kushina remembers the reason she'd passed that exam, thanks to the diverse uses of her signature chakra chains technique.

The proctor nods again. "Fair question, but it's not that simple to answer. You'll know when you read your tasks."

Inoichi looks about to ask another question, but Shikaku suddenly raises his hand.

"Look, Ms. Proctor, are you even a jounin?"

"I—" The female proctor's professionalism seems to crack. She's a young woman at most, and she looks righteously pissed, if Kushina has any experience looking at herself in the mirror after a particularly harrowing day. "No—but…"

"Then I don't see why any of the information you just gave us can be backed up…ah," Shikaku searches for her name, and finds it on the small name tag attached to her shinobi vest.

"Look—_Yoshino_—all I want to ask is whether or not you can guarantee this won't be a giant pain in the ass _along with_ being a giant waste of time. Some of us don't want to be jounin commanders."

The clear lack of respect in his tone makes the proctor's cheeks turn bright with anger. She flicks her eyes to her clipboard. "Well, _Nara_, if you don't want to, I highly suggest you get eaten alive by a wild tiger. Make sure it tears you limb from limb, lest any of us try and succeed in rescuing you and reinstating you into active duty," she says scathingly.

A few male exam takers shoot the miffed-looking Shikaku sympathetic glances.

"The main mission, however, is in this." Yoshino holds up a black and gold scroll. "You'll each get one in a moment. Read the mission, and head on out."

Kushina isn't sure if Yoshino had skipped out on a lot of other information to punish them all for Nara Shikaku's remarks, but Kushina isn't about to butt in. She feels her body tingle with anticipation as she peers out the open door of the cabin, out into the dark, beckoning forest.


	41. Mission 41

_Suzu: I'm not kidding when I say real life is eating me up. Anyone else riding the strugglebus, round 'n round? I feel you.  
_

* * *

**Intermission 41**

_- the jounin exam -_

* * *

"It's not just a survival mission, it's a test for strategic foresight. Chunnin would decide to camp it out for three days, whereas someone with the mind of a jounin would evaluate their gains and losses… and then pull out of that bloodsucking forest as quickly as possible."

Minato blinks, resembling a slightly upset guppy. "You're telling me that no one can survive in there for three days?"

Ibiki only shoves a finger into the younger blonde's chest, jabbing it upwards in emphasis. "_No one._ Not even a punk like you, no offense. You'd need to be a fucking monster to get out of there alive."

There's a fresh new gash above Morino Ibiki's right cheekbone, making the scar-faced man that much more impressive than Minato, regardless of what foreign bingo books might have to say.

"The test is not expected to mislead them, right? What about casualties?" Minato presses. He's pretty sure he read about the mating dens of those ten-meter long beasts, when the Sandaime had gleefully shoved all the property surveillance paperwork onto Minato a few weeks before the exam. Surely, there was no way the Hokage would let all twenty five chunnin who had been recommended for promotion get seriously wounded all at once. Seriously, that's just pushing for a bad village economy. The next financial crisis, for kami's sake. Not to mention, Kushina would be needlessly hurt.

"Genjutsu."

The two men turn to look at a tall woman with swirled purple eyes and purple lipstick that slinks over to join them at their table. She smiles at them both, all dark irises and dark promises, as Minato blushes under her knowing gaze.

"It's a precautionary mechanism. We have a team of genjutsu specialists who are on rotations inside the forest," Yuuhi Inaho explains. "Whenever death is imminent, the genjutsu team will take out the candidate. The jounin candidate will only remember select bits of their experience. Like being sucked dry of blood. Every. Single. Drop…"

Yuuhi brushes a shiny lacquered fingernail over Ibiki's jugular, which has the Iwa-interrogation chamber survivor shivering. (Minato suddenly feels better about his own nervous flush.)

"…When in reality, they were saved in the nick of time." Purple lips curve upward.

Minato mulls this information over. Just when he feels his stomach is about to unclench, Yuuhi adds, "Of course, it's not a foolproof system. Aburame Midaraki has his spy bugs on a lookout for problems, but there's a large possibility someone could die, quite suddenly. Nothing can be done about that."

"In that case, they probably weren't ready to be chunnin, much less jounin," Ibuki mutters.

Minato grips his chair a little harder, and tries his best not to imagine Kushina getting eaten by a giant poisonous snake.

* * *

Here's what Kushina's black and gold scroll read: "Your goal is to complete four scrolls' worth of missions quickly. Good luck." Gee. Big help there, scroll. Thanks for the blessing.

Okay. At least this means that this test is, in some way, a timed scenario, where efficiency counts towards success. In a matter of minutes, she distances herself from the rest of the shinobi pack, searching for a place to begin hunting for her first color-coded scroll.

As soon as Kushina finds herself separated from the other chunnin, in a mossy branch high up above the dense underbrush, a blood red cylinder drops from a crop of foliage above her head. _Woah._ The very idea that the first scroll would drop down like this via sheer coincidence tickles the back of her mind, but it's far more likely that this set up was planned by the proctors. Maybe it's to get everyone started off.

Kushina unfurls the scroll with a sense of anticipation, slowing herself down to check for gimmicks or traps in the seal of the paper. In a few seconds, the scroll is laid out beside her.

It's empty.

She rechecks it, tries adding a pulsing wave of chakra to it… heck, Kushina even tries breathing heavily on the damn thing in case it's temperature-sensitive.

Nothing.

Nothing, she realizes, but a _strong smell_, something between putrid and sweet, wafting from the scroll's insides. It reminds Kushina of something... she can't pinpoint it right away.

_Oh._ Right.

A rotting corpse.

* * *

_Suzu: So much foreshadowing ahoy! Any guesses?_


	42. Mission 42

_Suzu: Erm, plugging my other story, Vainglory. Plugging because it has action. This exam arc is probs the ONLY place you're gonna see (weak) action in this story._

* * *

**Intermission 42**

_- the jounin exam -_

* * *

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. He did NOT sign up for this cr—_CRAP_!

The colossal serpent slithers into the clearing and Shikaku scoots himself backwards before slamming into a massive tree trunk. He's pressing his body against the tree like a desperate lover (Inoichi-style, of course, not himself) in an attempt to stay out of view. The snake—_aw man_, just the size of the thing makes his head dizzy—seems to notice something else more interesting, and turns slowly right before rumbling on into the dark forest.

About twenty minutes ago, just when Shikaku thought he could work on building a fort of some kind high in the branches, a scroll plonked down on his noggin. It got worse and worse from there.

The scent that emanated from the first scroll is a lure for bugs. Shikaku only knows because he's read up on a similar technique regarding how the Aburame clan first "invited" insects to come inhabit their newborns' bodies. The fleshy, saccharine mix of smells attracts insects and possibly other amazingly amiable (read: would like to eat you for dinner) animals that lurk about in these woods.

"It's a fucking suicide mission…" he mutters. Something doesn't click, though. Why would the Sandaime sacrifice twenty or so able-bodied chunnin for one measly exam… unless… Abandoning all thoughts of building a fort, Shikaku calculates the best way to get his friends to leave unscathed. He wearily eyes the colony of a thousand or so poisonous Redbush Ants that were moving up the tree towards him.

Gingerly, he shrugs off his top layer of clothing. Anything to get some of the smell off of him. Shikaku vows that if he ever gets out of this alive, he is going to spend his life developing the perfect insecticide, not doing this shinobi crap.

* * *

"Is it edible?" Chouza inquires, poking at the flying Konoha leech that he'd plucked off of Inoichi moments ago.

Inoichi is trying not to hyperventilate, dabbing at the free-flowing blood from his arm. "I _told _you we should have waited for Shikaku. Only he knows useless material like that. Also, will you stop poking at that _thing_! It's freakin' me out."

"Hm, it's actually kinda cute. Hey, Inoichi, let's name it."

As soon as the words left Chouza's mouth, the man's face grows slack, assuming a completely different expression. One well-placed foot stomp later, the leech is dead underfoot.

"Mission accomplished," grins Chouza.

Inoichi then returns to his own body.

* * *

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. There's a giant motherfu—ing snake after her and it was about to… _CRAP_!

There are probably better ways to die than being eaten by a giant snake. This one is nearly forty meters long, and seems glued onto her. Even when Kushina launches a few kage bunshins to lead the thing away, it remains undeterred. Kushina curses her hair. She blames her hair for everything, maybe sometimes even unnecessarily, but admittedly, all sorts of wildlife are particularly attracted to the color red. Red like blood.

_'I noticed your beautiful hair right away.'_

The memory floats by, uninvited in this life-or-death moment. Kushina feels a tear beading up on her eye, and realizes she's scared. _Aw, shit_. What would Minato say if he saw her running from one little snake?

Uzumaki Kushina whips back around, embracing all the rash, suicidal thoughts clamoring in her head.

Hello, Mr. Snake. My, what a _big_ mouth you have.

Then she notices it—like a good ninja—a tiny, glint of crimson inside the yawning caverns of the fanged beast. The red thing—a scroll, Kushina realizes—comes closer and closer into view.

"Gotcha," She grunts, as her fingers close around her second missions scroll.

And precisely then, Kushina realizes she's being swept up into the slimy cavern of a snake's mouth.


End file.
